The Stretchiest Mobians Alive
by Chaoticlover
Summary: Read and Find out Most of the credit goes to Acosta Perez Jose Ramiro, he did alot of the work
1. Elastic Origins

Chapter 1 - Elastic Origins

It was another day in Knothole Village; the other Freedom Fighters were ready for another raid in Robotropolis to sabotage yet another Robotnik scheme.

In the hut of Sally Acorn, Sally was getting ready to depart when Sonic comes in through the door to inform her that the other Freedom Fighters were ready to head out.

"Hey Sal, you ready yet?" asked Sonic.

"Just about Sonic," Replied Sally, she got up and walked out the door with Sonic and was on their way to Robotropolis, along with Tails (whose technical knowledge was always handy in these missions) and Bunnie, as they would probably need her strength to break in: when they arrived, Sally began debriefing on their mission to take down a research lab where Robotnik was working on a new weapon that would turn organic matter into rubber called the Elastomatic.

"The research lab is on the fifth floor, if Sonic and Bunnie set up charges along the base of the building, while Tails and I sneak in through the ventilation system to destroy the Elastomatic, we'll be out almost immediately," said Sally.

Once Tails deactivated the perimeter's surveillance, he and Sally then made their way to the ventilation system, up the shaft to a nearby changing station for the roboticized scientist; all the suits were blue and white.

"These can actually provide some protection during a fight. I'll take one so we can replicate the material later." Sally grabbed one and put it on and felt it was form – fitting and went on to find the Elastomatic still wearing the suit she picked up, as it was easier than just carrying it around.

Meanwhile, Tails had found the laboratory and called Sally to join him, mostly though some communicators he had designed for the occasion (wrist ones) so they could talk in whispers. There, he and Sally found Dr. Robotnik and Snively working on a random machine.

Sally motioned Tails to move before getting discovered, and they both soon found Robotnik's main computers. Tails lost no time to hack the system and started copying files before erasing them from the machines, to learn from the mad scientists' projects and inventions before he made them.

Meanwhile, as Bunnie was setting up explosives outside the lab, Sonic started moving around the factory, setting up the explosive charges his foxy friend had made for the occasion. Unfortunately, Robotnik had learned from experience, and he no longer relied just on the security cameras Sonic was expertly dodging to avoid detection; the hedgehog had no way to know there were several motion sensors around him, all of them programmed to detect anything moving at super speed, so, ironically, Sonic's fast running around, evading the cameras, was making him more noticeable for the sensors.

"Heh, I wish I could see old Robotnik's expression when he looks at this place once we explode it." Sonic grinned after placing another explosive charge.

"YOU CAN'T SEE MY EXPRESSION, BUT I'M SURE YOU CAN HEAR ME!"

Sonic froze on the spot and then looked up at a swarm of mini-robots flying over him, aiming at whim with what seemed to be laser blasters. One of those robots, a bit larger than the others, was the one Robotnik was using to send his voice.

"AND I'LL SOON BE HEARING YOUR DEMISE, RODENT!"

"Wow, Robby, you practiced that line or it`s spontaneous?" Sonic grinned in his usual overconfident way, yet still assessing the situation and finding a way to escape, finding an open spot that the robots weren't covering. The blue hedgehog used this chance to dash away, evading a multitude of shots. Still, he had to keep moving since these mini-robots, even if obviously not as resistant as other larger models were faster and more maneuverable.

"Guys, Ro-Brain found us!" Sonic talked to his companions through his mini-communicator while dodging another barrage of shots.

"We know!" Sally yelled back. The moment the sensors detected Sonic, Robotnik sent his mini-bots all around the factory, and now Sonic's friends were being attacked as well. During the battle, Tails and Sally got separated, with Tails going to the upper levels while Sally made it to the laboratory where they were keeping the Elastomatic; there, after missing the mini-bots after her, she saw Dr. Robotnik and Snively, despite still being aware of the intrusion, were testing out a ray gun on a broken PC, when the ray fired a beam of red energy was shot at the computer and it melted before their eyes as if it had turned to rubber.

"Oh, my gosh, I have to tell someone about this," said Sally as she tried to make her way back to the vent shaft but then knocked over a box of lead pipe, this caught Robotniks attention as he was expecting the young princess.

"Well, well, well, Princess Sally, I've been wondering when you'd arrive," Said Dr. Robotnik, talking on a monitor, while two of his SWAT bots apprehended her.

"Snively, keep an eye on the Princess, the Hedgehog's all mine," ordered Robotnik, not wanting to lose sight of Sonic, knowing he was (as usual) the main threat.

"Yes, sir," Replied Snively, approaching Sally to handcuff her.

Just then Sonic ran in with the swarm of mini-robots still pursuing him and the SWAT-bots started shooting, Sally managed to have broken free from the SWAT bots holding her captive. Suddenly, one of the SWAT-bots shot one of the mini – bots that was chasing Sonic and it crash into the Elastomatics' control console, which caused the Elastomatic to fire a red beam at Sally that caused her body to melt.

"What's happening to me," Slurred Sally as her body began to drop to the ground.

Her handcuffs slipped off her wrists and then a SWAT bot came and punched her in the stomach, sending her flying into a wall, changing into a ball and bouncing all over the walls of the room and hitting all of Robotnik's SWAT bots, then changed back to her regular form.

"What on earth has happened to me," Asked Sally in confused tone, as a SWAT bot was coming right at her. Sally then stretched her arm out, expanded her hand and punched the SWAT bot into a junk pile.

"This is getting too weird for me, my body's become rubber and I can't understand how I'm doing this," Said Sally, as she deflated her hand back to it's normal size.

"Sal, I could use some help here," Yelled Sonic as the mini – bots were still chasing him shooting lasers at him.

"On the way Sonic," Replied Sally as she began to stretch her torso like it was a rubber band, expanded her hands to grab the entire swarm of mini - bots, and crushed them to pieces.

"That was even weirder," Said Sally as she retracted her torso and arms, and deflated her hands back to their normal size.

"Hey Sal, how did you do that?" Sonic asked Sally, as the female was as curious as him about how she was able to do all that.

"I have no idea how, but I think when that blast of red energy from the Elastomatic hit me, it must've given me the ability to stretch, deform, expand, or contract my body into any form I choose," Explained Sally.

"Wow, I guess that must makes you the stretchiest thing alive," Cracked Sonic.

"Not funny, Sonic," Scorned Sally.

"Very interesting," both Sally and Sonic turned to see Robotnik glaring at them, "and I'll be willing to put that theory of yours to a test, Princess... on my lab table, performing all kind of painful analysis procedures on you."

"Ah, Robby, we haven't forgotten about you." Sonic grinned, yet still ready to fight or escape. At that moment, the wall behind them started cracking, and it fell after a few seconds.

"Guys, we gotta get out of here. I have several SWAT bots after me." Bunnie, still holding a large chunk of the wall in her robotic hand, said to the pair. Then, Sonic looked behind her, noticing another swarm of mini-bots.

"Got it. Tails, we're leaving!" Sonic yelled to his friend. Soon, the flying fox joined them and the furries ran through the destroyed wall before Robotnik could catch them. Then, Sonic threw the last remaining explosive charges he still conserved at the mini-bots, destroying them all.

"I hate that hedgehog..." Robotnik growled before getting interrupted by Snively.

"One of the mini-bots found an explosive charge, timed to detonate in less than one minute! If there are more charges around, we have to leave now!"

"As I already said... I HATE THAT HEDGEHOG!" Robotnik practically roared as he and Snively went to their escape pods, barely getting out of the factory/lab before the explosions started destroying it.

Sonic and company, already at a safe distance, turned back to see the fireworks.

"Heh, very good job with those explosives, Tails." Sonic grinned at his friend, who was flying next to him, along with Bunnie.

"Yes, it was pretty good. Now..." Bunnie turned at Sally, "since when do you have elastic powers?"

"How did you know..."

"You are running at the same speed as Sonic by stretching your legs to make longer and faster steps." Bunnie interrupted her friend.

Sally then realized the rabbit girl was right, as she was using her newly acquired powers to move as fast as the blue hedgehog. Even if Sonic wasn't moving at his top speed, this was still a big feat.

"Wow, and I call myself a scientist... I didn't notice until now!" Tails said, turning at Sally and looking at her in awe.

"We just escaped a lot of security robots and exploded one of Robby's factories, Tails, so don't sweat it; anyone can make a mistake in a moment of stress... well, except myself, because I never get stressed." Sonic grinned.

"Oh, really, what about the time you had that nightmare of me getting roboticized and you just stood there scared," Smirked Sally.

"Okay, so I get little stressed out, big deal," Remarked Sonic.

Just then, Sally stretched her entire body and wrapped herself around Sonic until she covered him from head to toe. Obviously, Sonic had to stop running.

"Wow. What a way to stop him, Sugah." Bunnie chuckled at this.

"Okay, okay, fine, I admit it, I got very stressed about that. I had a nightmare about one of my closest friends getting transformed into a mindless killing machine; I'd need to be made of stone to not feel that." Sonic admitted. "Uh... and Sal... can you let me go now, please? Seriously, it's not easy to breath when you are trapped in an anaconda-like embrace."

Sally nodded and got back to her normal shape, Tails observing the whole process.

"It seems you got an instinctive ability to use your power, pretty much like a butterfly that makes its first flight without any previous sentient learning." Tails commented.

"So, Sally already knows how to use her power even if she just got it a few minutes ago?" Bunnie asked, surprised. When she got partially roboticized, Bunnie needed several days just to get a hang on the basics of how to use her new abilities; then again, the robotic parts weren't a natural part of her body, while Sally's powers were now a full part of her natural body.

"We'll need to give you a complete check-up when we get back home." Tails said while checking Sally's outfit. "Also, we must analyse this clothing, and see how it resists and adapts all your body changes, I mean, I doubt Robotnik created it with the specific purpose to adapt to an elastic body, since he didn't create his invention to use on organic matter... or at least, he didn't intend the organic matter to survive the process."

"Okay, and I'll just stand there and pretend I understand what you said." Sonic chuckled at this, as usual, making fun of his own ignorance on certain topics.


	2. Sally's Powers

Chapter 2 - Sally's Powers

Later, the group went back to Knothole, and Tails started a very complete physical examination of Sally, with the help of Nicole, Sally's sentient computer, who was also working on Sally's new outfit.

"I wonder what else I can do," Sally commented while getting examined.

"Mmm... considering your body can pretty much morph into virtually any form, it means your limitations are established by your imagination and whatever is your body's maximum resistance to physical stress." Tails informed her.

"So far, it seems you can stretch to an unlimited distance, and I mean your full body, without suffering serious damage." Nicole informed her. "Also, I finished the first analysis on the suit. Robotnik used unstable molecules when creating it, meaning it can adapt to extreme changes in a very short time, most possibly to protect the wearer from adverse weather, toxins or other difficult situations without needing a bulkier protective suit. Since you were using it when the ray hit you, the suit got adapted to the extreme changes of your own elasticity."

"That makes sense." Sally thought out loud.

"I'll think about a series of tests to determine your physical limits." Tails told her. "Also, I'm almost sure your strength got significantly enhanced, since your rubber-like muscles are more resistant to fatigue and overall damage than regular tissues."

"So, Sal can now do almost anything with her own body, and she's also got super strength?" Sonic, his arms crossed, and his back supported on a nearby wall during the whole examination, finally talked.

"Sonic, we almost forgot you were here." Tails turned at him.

"In deed, such silent observation doesn't fit with your normal behaviour parameters." Nicole looked at Sonic too.

"Hey, I needed some time to re-think everything you people were saying and translate from Nerdish to English." Sonic shrugged.

"Anyway, back to you, Sally," Tails turned at her, "even if this suit is designed to protect the wearer from extreme temperatures, I think you must protect yourself from hot and cold weather, at least until we determinate your resistance to them. Cold makes rubber very hard, and heat can melt it, or make it sticky."

"Let's get started on the tests shall we, I really want to see what my new powers can do," Said Sally excitedly.

"Alright, First, stretch out your body and lie down so we can see how your body adjusts to the length change," Said Tails.

Sally then stretched her entire body and laid down on the ground to be examined then Tails and Nicole went over to see how her body was adjusting to the change of her body length.

"Mmm... Sally, take a deep breath." Tails said to her. Sally inhaled deeply, and part of her body inflated. "Okay, now, hold it."

Sally held her breath for almost 20 minutes without any problem.

"Okay, guess this explains why you can still breath when you stretch, despite your lungs getting a lot thinner when you do it. Aside from your increased lung capacity, you can distribute air through your whole body and still use it properly. The same might apply to your blood circulation and other vital functions." Nicole observed.

Sally then got back her normal form, and the next test started. Tails made her hit several targets located at various distances. Obviously, as the distance grew, the hits became weaker, until Tails suggested her to think about her shoulder and arm like a spring that conserves energy and then unleashes it full force when released. Sally's punches were now even stronger at a longer distance, since Sally had to contract her muscles a lot harder before releasing the punch in order to reach the target, and when she did it was as powerful as a mini-missile impact. Sally made a mental note about not using this trick full power when punching someone at short distance, knowing it would probably kill almost anyone except a super strong opponent.

The next test was her pulling force. Sally could move more than one ton by using the muscular contraction trick, and then, for heavier weights, she could wrap it with one arm while using the other to grab a support (like a pole or a big enough boulder) that would help her pull harder; this allowed Sally to move more than 10 tons with relative ease.

To test her 'normal' strength level, they went for the usual bench pressing test, using Bunnie's weights. At first, Sally (still using the contraction trick) could lift more than 800 pounds with ease, but after that, she started having troubles. Tails then suggested her to not just contract her muscles, but enlarge them. Sally, concentrating hard enough, got a body that would be the envy of any body-builder; Sonic barely could hold a gasp when she became a statuesque Amazon. Sally found out that this form allowed her to lift as much weight as she could pull with the support-and-pull maneuver, and she wasn't even getting a little tired, so it was obvious she could move even larger weights.

"Whoa, Sal, you trying to beat Robotnik on your own or something?" Sonic half-joked. With this strength, Sally would trash Robotnik's largest robots as if they were soda cans.

"Heh, well, thanks, Sonic, but we all know pure strength is nothing if you can't use it properly." Sally giggled while changing back to normal.

"But it seems you can use it very well, Sally." Bunnie observed. "Hey, wanna try a flight test?"

"That test would be interesting." Nicole commented.

"But Sal has no wings, jet legs, like Bunnie, , or a double tail, like Tails." Sonic said.

"But I can get them." Sally said, realizing Bunnie's idea. "Okay, Bunnie, give me a good launching."

For this test, the group moved out of Knotville, so Sally could try her flight without obstacles in her way. Once they found a good spot for the test, Bunnie grabbed Sally like a javelin (in fact, Sally molded her body into a javelin), and threw her up to the sky. After reaching a good height, Sally morphed back to normal, and then changed her arms and tail to mimic a flying squirrel's, using the air currents for gliding. Then, for a more active flight, she changed her arms to normal, awhile growing bat-like wings on her back, similar to Rouge's, her old ally/enemy; flying via this method was considerably harder than she expected because she depended on her back's muscles to move the wings, and obviously, she wasn't used to make these moves on a natural way. After a couple of minutes of erratic flying, Sally started dominating it, while her friends watched her from the ground.

"Cool... but wouldn't it be better if she get bird wings?" Sonic asked to nobody in particular.

"Yes, but, to do that, Sally has to mimic the feathers, texture and shape as well, while bat wings are relatively smooth and need no more special features in order to work properly." Tails told him.

Sally then changed her bat wings into plane wings and glided down to the ground next to Tails and Nicole, who were astonished by how Sally managed to change her wings, glide and then land.

"Whoa Sal, that was way past cool," Commented Sonic.

"Yeah, that was impressive there, Sal Girl." Bonnie commented. "You think you can mimic my jets?" The bionic rabbit pointed at her legs.

"It would be hard to properly mimic them," Nicole answered for Sally, "since Sally would need to morph her legs' inner structure to mimic the bionic mechanisms."

"Besides, her body tissues are basically rubber now, and rubber isn't that resistant to high temperatures. The jet's heat would melt her leg." Tails added. "Still, she can still morph into several other flying limbs or attachments that doesn't involve heat, like, my tails, or insect wings."

"You bring a very good point about a test we must perform now, Tails." Nicole said before turning at Sally. "We have to see how fast you can morph into several basic forms."

For the next hour, Sally morphed, either entirely or just a part of her body, into whatever shape Nicole told her; a cube, a pyramid, a pole, a shield (Nicole made Bunnie hit Sally a few times in this shape, to test the resistance to damage), a spring, a spiked ball, and several others. Most of the times, the change was almost instantaneous and required little effort, except for some concentration to get the details right, like, making the pyramid's edges pointy, or making the shield thick enough to resist the hits.

"Now, to test Sally's resistance to a sudden stretch, we need Sonic's assistance." Nicole then explained the next test. Sally wrapped her legs (in lasso form) around a very thick tree, and then wrapped her arms around Sonic's shoulders and waist; the hedgehog would now run top speed, in a straight line, resulting in Sally's body stretching to the extreme.

"Okay, Sal, if you feel any pain, just move your hands and I'll stop." Sonic told Sally; as a safety measure, Sally's hands would be on Sonic's chest, so he could still see them when running at top speed.

"Got it, Sonic." Sally nodded, smiling, at the blue hedgehog. Sonic nodded back, and, after a few moments, the test started.

Sonic ran at a great speed yet still kept himself under his upper limit, to avoid hurting Sally at a speed where he would need time to stop. Sally felt her whole body stretching while Sonic pulled her, the sensation being a weird one yet not hurting her at all. The hedgehog only stopped running when he was more than 3 miles away from the tree Sally's legs were anchored to; this only took him a few moments, yet he was still very impressed that Sally resisted this much. Sonic looked back at Sally's overly-stretched body, that now looked like a gigantic rubber band or bungee-cord attached to him.

"Wait... bungee rope..." Sonic then realized what was going to happen now. "Sally, don't recover your... oh, rats, her head must be one mile away!" As he said, now the only part of Sally's body that he could distinguish was her arms and hands, attached to him, while her head and shoulders were now quite far away. Sonic tried to run again to avoid what was coming next, but it was too late.

When Sonic stopped running, Sally`s body reacted like any rubber piece or spring that gets stretched to the max and then the force doing it suddenly stops; contracting back to its original length. Sonic got yanked back, and the next moments were a blur to him, as Sally pulled him back to the spot where he started running. What worried him the most was knowing that the other edge of Sally was attached to a tree, meaning Sonic would land there, or, more precisely, smash himself against the tree, and at this speed, would be quite a hit.

Knowing this, Sonic was quite surprised when he didn't stop with a severe hit but with a relatively soft one. It was still powerful enough to stun him, but he wasn't actually hurt; luckily, Sally came to the same conclusions as him, and, when her head was back to the rest of her body, she morphed into a large cushion, except for her arms and legs, still attached to Sonic. The cushion was large enough to soften Sonic's impact.

"Sonic, are you alright?" Tails asked him as the fox, Bunnie and Nicole approached the hedgehog. Sonic was visibly dizzy but, on a closer look, not injured at all. Sally released him and then unwrapped her legs from around the tree, recovering her normal shape to look at Sonic's condition too.

"We should have predicted this!" Nicole made a face that showed a very obvious disappointment, directed to herself and her artificial intelligence for not calculating the results of stretching Sally this much.

"Don't worry, I'm fine." Sonic, rubbing his head, finally stood up.

"Are you sure, Sonic?" Sally asked, helping him keep his balance.

"Yeah, Sal, don't worry. It wasn't your fault... I should have grabbed a tree myself or some other anchor when I stopped running." Sonic told her, calming Sally down as they started returning to the lab, finishing the day's field tests.


	3. To Defeat a Friend

Chapter 3 - To Defeat a Friend.

Later that day, Sally was in the lab with Nicole, practicing on shape - shifting into other creatures; it was very difficult to do, since it took a lot of concentration and effort. Sally was attempting to shape - shift into a Mobian wolf, she was visualizing one of the Wolf Pack Freedom Fighters, her friend Lupe, and was beginning to change into a wolf. Her body began to grow to human size; her legs became long and thin, her arms were twice their original length, and her hips were even curvier then normal, Then, she grew her tail to the same length and volume as a Mobian wolf's, Lastly, Sally changed her face by extending her nose to twice it's length and grew her ears to twice their height.

Moments later, a young Mobian wolf entered the village; she had gray fur, black braided hair, and a small scar on her left cheek. It was Lupe of the Wolf Pack Freedom, coming to visit the Knothole Freedom Fighters.

"Hey, Lupe, nice to see you." Sonic gave her his usual greetings, by sprinting top speed and stopping right in front of her. "You should have told us you were coming; we could have organized a little party."

"Any excuse to have a chili dogs' feast, uh, Sonic?" Lupe smiled and shook hands with Sonic.

"Heh, as if I ever needed a excuse." Sonic chuckled while the rest of the Freedom Fighters arrived to meet Lupe as well.

"Lupe, you've missed a lot of the action. Too bad you didn't arrive a little earlier." Bunnie said to the wolf.

"Why, were you on a mission?" Lupe asked.

"Yes, and you wouldn't believe what Sally got out of the whole ordeal." Bunnie said as they started heading to the laboratory.

"A new weapon or an exotic souvenir?"

"More like, a souvenir, courtesy of a new weapon." Sonic informed Lupe. Before the wolf could ask again, the lab's door opened in front of them.

"Lupe, hi! Nicole detected you entering the village."

"Hello, Sal... Sally?" Lupe gasped and then stared at Sally in shock while the others tried to hold back laughter. Lupe couldn't believe her eyes; the female in front of her did sound like Sally, and she had the same fur color and eyes, but she wasn't a rodent at all, but a wolf, and not any wolf, but a brown version of herself with a different outfit and hairdo.

Lupe finally calmed down a bit and took a deep breath, that helped her get the scent of the other "wolf", and realized that, in deed, she was Sally, even if her body scent was now a bit different, mixed with a rubbery scent.

"Sally... it's really you... but how..."

"Let me show you." Sally interrupted Lupe and then morphed back to her normal shape. It was very quick and painless, since she only had to relax her body and let it recover its form naturally. "You wouldn't believe all the time I needed to get your shape right; my first tries were either too small or too chubby."

"Even after watching you doing all kind of shapes today, Sal, that still impressed us." Sonic added. He then turned at Lupe. "Now, here comes the super explanation... everyone here can tell you what happened, but I tell the story much better."

Sonic then started telling Lupe the whole thing, from the mission's details to the tests Sally had been performing since then.

"This is quite interesting," Lupe commented when the others finished explaining to her, "but, despite all the benefits of these new powers, I think you must be careful and not becoming overconfident, Sally."

"Yes, I'll be careful..." Sally was interrupted by Sonic.

"Sally is always careful, Lupe, and you know that."

"Yes, but you also told me that Robotnik was there when Sally destroyed his robots, and that means he already knows about Sally's powers and how she got them. Even if he can't replicate that device to give himself those powers, he can come up with ideas to counter Sally's abilities." Lupe explained and then looked directly at Sonic. "Remember all the things he had created to counter your super speed."

"Super fast robots, radar-directed missiles, water trap pits, laser barriers... nothing had worked so far." Sonic shrugged. "Still, you`re right about Robby being very creative. He needs something to keep himself busy, a hobby... besides inventing ways to destroy us; it would make our lives a lot easier."

"And that's not happening anytime soon, Sonic, so we must consider Lupe's observations." Sally nodded at the warrior wolf. "Nicole, Tails and I will start working on possible weaknesses of my new power, and scenarios Robotnik might use against us, so we can be ready for them. I don't want my powers failing at the last moment when I need them the most."

"Those tests will be the hardest." Tails thought out loud. "Basically, we'll be trying to find ways to defeat and hurt Sally here before coming with ways to counter them."

Everyone got silent at this. In order to fully test her weaknesses, they'd need to design death traps for Sally, and if anything went wrong, she could get badly hurt or worse; and they couldn't go easy on her because Robotnik wouldn't go easy, therefore they had to test her limits in the most extreme situations.

Unknown to them, Lupe was more than right. At another of his bases, Robotnik was checking out the images his cameras taped before the lab/factory's destruction, and taking notes of Sally's abilities.

"Mmm... this power is incredibly versatile. I can only imagine all the possible applications." Robotnik grinned at the thought. "I am a bit ashamed of myself for not considering the positive reactions my invention would have in living tissue... then again, the princess was lucky enough to wear one of my unstable molecules' suit when the ray hit her; that probably protected her enough to get her biology transformed without turning into an inert rubber mass."

Robotnik lost no time to start checking out his several projects and blueprints. He'd need to modify some, and maybe create from scratch, in order to be ready for Sally's new powers, not to mention he had to run several simulations and analysis in his computers in order to calculate all the potential uses of the princess' powers, that will also help him when working on a cell that could keep her prisoner once he succeeded in capturing the elastic rodent; Robotnik grinned at the idea of performing a series of painful tests on Sally in order to learn the most about her new physiology before repeating the process on himself. By getting superpowers that wouldn't depend exclusively on his advanced yet still not invincible technology, the mad scientist would have a great advantage over his enemies, especially Sonic, who would no longer have the edge in enhanced abilities, and might finally be defeated.

"And by my own two hands." Robotnik cackled while looking at his hands, visualizing them as the huge, deadly mallets he would turn them into in order to pummel Sonic to a blue pulp. And he was sure he would actually be able to imagine other more creative, painful ways to use the elastic abilities that, he had no doubt, will be his own in a matter of time.


	4. Trap Master

Chapter 4 - Trap Master

Back at Knothole, Nicole and Tails had already prepared the first test for Sally's trap-escaping abilities. They decided to start easy, by strapping Sally to a steel table; of course, these straps weren't normal. Besides being extremely resistant, they were so tight that they actually hurt Sally when she tried to expand her body, and when she tried to make herself thinner, the straps kept securing her.

"Okay, Sally, now we want you to try breaking free by any way you can imagine." Tails explained her.

"Here I go." Sally resisted and tried to break the straps, but it was easier said than done. Even when adapting to her muscular form, it was still very hard to do this; however, this gave Sally a mental reminder of her new ability to make her body grow in size, and even get new limbs.

Sally stretched his hands' fingers, and made them quite thick; then, she bended them and shaped these fingers into hooks. Finally, she grabbed one of the straps with her fingers and started pulling; once she was sure the straps wouldn't tight her again, Sally made her upper body a lot leaner until it slipped out of these straps. Then, she made her fingers get back their normal shape, and, now with her arms free and some support, Sally made her arms muscular again and grabbed the straps securing her legs, repeating the procedure, holding them in this position so she could slip her legs out.

"And... time!" Sally then turned at Nicole. "How long?"

"Two minutes and thirteen seconds. A good time for a first start." Nicole then looked back at Sally. "Now, we'll try another trap; a steel box."

Bunnie, Lupe and Sonic looked in silence how Sally continued with the tests, Sonic getting an uncomfortable expression when she entered the box. Being a speedster, Sonic was a natural claustrophobic, and didn't like being in a closed space without room to move his legs: even if Sally wasn't in the same situation, it was obvious she wouldn't be that comfortable in there, especially after Nicole and Tails secured the box with the best electronic locks they had designed.

"Can she breath in there?" Lupe asked the young fox.

"Yes, but only for a few minutes. The box is hermetically closed so we didn't leave any space Sally could have used to slip her body out, meaning it has no air supply either." Tails explained. "Nicole is monitoring her vital signs, so, if Sally starts suffocating, we can unlock the box and let her out."

For a couple of minutes, everyone heard several noises coming from inside the box; obviously, Sally's attempts to find a shape that would allow her to escape. When she didn't make any noise for several seconds, Sonic almost dashed to the rescue, until Nicole reminded him Sally was still alive and well. Then, they heard a different noise; not a hit, but the noise of metal being forced. A few moments later, the box started expanding a bit, and some little dents became visible at the sides. Then, on a sudden, a side of the box's entrance got a very big dent, opening a space that not just allowed air to get in, but also gave Sally an exit; almost immediately, the princess' body, taking a semi-liquid state, got out of the box, and got back to her natural shape.

"Sally, that was amazing! How did you do that?" Bunnie asked Sally as everyone approached the princess.

"I used your method, Bunnie. You normally punch your way out of these traps, or, if you can't do it, you push until opening the door; I did the same, enlarging my arm's muscles," Sally demonstrated this by making her right arm incredibly muscular, so much, it was as thick as her torso, "and then started applying pressure on the box until the metal couldn't resist and started bending enough to give me an opening."

"A very remarkable strategy, Princess, especially considering this box is made of titanium alloy. In theory, this box can protect you from a bazooka attack with great possibilities of survival." Nicole informed Sally.

Nicole, Tails, Lupe and Sonic then came up with another idea for a trap. What better way to trap someone who can change their shape, then to trap 'em in a prison that could do the same?

"Ready, Sally girl?" Asked Bunnie, as she approached Sally with what seemed to be a large plastic wrapping.

"Go ahead, Bunnie." Sally held her breath while Sally covered her with the plastic. Then, Nicole sent a low level electric pulse (through the labs' many hidden circuits) that made the plastic completely rigid, forming a transparent armor around Sally's body.

Sally started getting her muscular shape when the plastic covering her did exactly the same, adjusting itself to Sally's change so now it wasn't rigid but very elastic and followed Sally's every move, so she couldn't just break it from the inside. Then, Sally morphed her hands into blades, trying to make them as sharp as possible, but the plastic adapted to this change as well so it wasn't cut at all. Sally went through many shapes she already dominated, including the ball, pyramid and cubic ones, but the plastic kept retaining her. Now Sally was starting to get a bit worried, since, even with her physiology adapted to take maximum advantage of any air she inhaled, even she would eventually faint due lack of oxygen after a while.

Sally then remembered that, according to Nicole and Tails, her stretching was virtually limitless, and decided to test this. Sally focused all her strength in her shoulders, and then literally shot her fists against the lab's exit. The plastic prison adapted as well, stretching along with the arms; Sally didn't stop stretching even when her arms were out of her sight.

Then, after Sally felt she had stretched enough, she made a move that surprised everyone around her. Sally grew large spikes on her back, that made a clean cut on the plastic covering those areas. Satisfied with her work, Sally went back to her semi-liquid state and literally jumped out of the plastic.

"I actually thought that would retain you, Sally." Tails said, impressed, while Sally took a deep breath and started retracting her arms, that were still inside the plastic.

"Yes... I thought the same... but then I remembered that, the most you inflate a balloon, the thinner and more fragile it becomes. When I over-stretched one side of the plastic, the rest of it became thinner and easier to damage... I though stretching my arms at full length and using all my strength, it would be enough to force the plastic to the max in the area around my arms and hands, and make the section covering my back a lot easier to break."

"Had we lately mentioned you are a genius, Sal?" Sonic praised the princess.

"Thanks, Sonic... and I must admit, it's kinda interesting and funny to try finding new ways to use my abilities." Sally admitted, already getting an inside look of Sonic's mentality and how much he liked toying with his enemies and finding creative ways to use his super speed to defeat them.

"I'll work on a way to make an energy field that can mimic this plastic trap. It will not have the same weakness and we'll see how you can escape it." Nicole told Sally while the super intelligent computer was already working on a way to do just that. "In the meantime, we'll test your capacity to go through a laser security system."

A few minutes later, Sally was at the end of a long corridor, and then Nicole activated a series of lasers all the way through it, leaving little to no free space to move. The lasers weren't weapons, so they wouldn't hurt Sally if she touched them, but that would activate an alarm, indicating the end of the exercise.

Sally needed a few moments to make a mental scan of the lasers and finding a way to move through them. Then, Sally started advancing, making a series of contortions that would be impossible to anyone without her powers, and at some points she had to make herself as thin as a piece of paper in order to avoid getting touched by the light. Due to the difficulty of this escape, Sally needed almost 3 minutes to pass, despite the corridor not being longer than 100 feet.

"The moves were adequate, Sally, but you need to work on your speed. If the lasers were moving, or you had little time to advance..."

"I know, Tails." Sally interrupted the fox, nodding at him. "Let's repeat this a few more times until I improve my time."

Tails nodded, and he and Nicole made a few adjustments to the lasers, changing their positions and adding some more, so Sally couldn't just memorize the path through them in order to pass. This happened 10 times, until Sally was confident and agile enough to complete the test in less than 40 seconds.

Sally, Nicole, Lupe, Bunnie, Sonic, and Tails then moved on to the energy field prison trap, that was ready by now to mimic the qualities of the plastic prison without the weaknesses.

"Alright Sally, this part is going to be dangerous since I've charged the field with enough energy to resist your stretching, so you can't overdo it without hurting yourself." Nicole explained her.

"That actually sounds like an actual trap for Robotnik. Okay, turn it on." Sally said to Nicole as the princess stepped on the platform where the energy field would be projected.

A moment later, the energy field was on. Sally started with the usual maneuvers and escape attempts she had used previously, just to test the field's resistance. Then, Sally turned herself into a ball and started rolling on her place, at top speed, very similar to Sonic's trademark rolling attack; the rubbery ball Sally had turned himself into then literally shot itself from its place, trying to escape the force field, that stretched as it was designed in order to keep the ball inside. The field then returned to its original form, getting Sally back to the platform, without her making any real progress to escape. Sally then morphed back to normal and took some deep breaths... and then she realized it; the way she would escape. The princess started relaxing her body, changing into her semi-liquid state, the energy field mimicking this process until a few bubbles started forming on Sally's body. Then, suddenly, the rubbery paste, apparently, became smaller... and smaller, and didn't stop until it literally disappeared from sight.

"Holy... where is Sal?" Sonic gasped at this.

"She's okay, Sonic... and she's brilliant." Nicole calmed him down. A few moments later, the rubbery past emerged from the a nearby air vent, and reformed into Sally's normal body. Nicole turned at her, smiling. "You noticed the air vent."

"Yes. The field didn't let anything in or out, including air, but I still could breath inside it. That's where I realized there had to be some sort of ventilation system to cool it down, in order to prevent the field from overheating with my escape attempts. I lowered my density to the max, until I was one step away from complete liquid state, so my body could find the air's entrance, and then I passed through it... even if it was a very small space." Sally explained her escape.

"Very smart of you." Tails praised her. Any energy field produced some heat on the machine generating it, and, in order to adapt to Sally's shape-shifting, the generator's energy exits had to be all over the platform, and the cooling system couldn't be far from it, or else the field would probably stop working, or even explode, if Sally or whoever trapped inside could force it to the limit.

"Alright, now lets move on to combat," Said Tails.


	5. Elastic Combat

Chapter 5 - Elastic Combat

"Ready, Sal," Asked Sonic, as he and Sally entered the sparring area. Basically, it was a large round platform, inside the lab, that had several sensors so Nicole could check out the fighters' vitals during the spar and stop everything if things started getting too hard for one of them.

"The moment you want, Sonic." Sally grinned and got her fight stance.

"Okay... and... go." Nicole started the match.

Sonic dashed at Sally, trying to get a fast win, but Sally surprised him by morphing the front part of her body into huge spikes. Sonic yelped and stopped barely a couple inches in front of the spikes; Sally then morphed the spikes into a lasso and grabbed Sonic.

"Not bad, Sal, but not enough either." Sonic grinned and made his rolling attack, his ball shape so fast that Sally couldn't hold it. Then, Sonic charged at her again, and Sally avoided the impact by bending her back in a way impossible for any other; Sally then formed two large whips with her arms and tried to catch Sonic, who dodged her again.

Sally increased the speed of her attacks, but despite how fast she was moving, Sonic was still the fastest thing alive; the blue hedgehog dodged and jumped while running around her, avoiding all her attempts. Then, he grabbed one of the whips and, moving top speed, ran in circles around her, tying up Sally with her own arm.

"Not bad, Sonic... but not enough either." Sally smirked, making Sonic grin as how now she was using his words to tease him back. The princess morphed into her semi-liquid state, therefore eliminating her tied up condition; Sonic got ready to strike her when she changed back to normal, but Sally had other ideas.

When Sally reformed, she made sure to her eyelashes and hair considerably longer, plus getting a perfect hourglass figure, with a thin waist and extremely well formed hips and bust; even Rouge would be envious of her right now. For a better effect, Sally also made herself a bit taller than usual and gave Sonic a flirty look.

"Ready to hit me now, Sonic?" Sally spoke in her best seductive tone. Sonic froze on the spot, his eyes and mouth wide open, and even drooling a little, while the others looked from outside the sparring area; Tails blushed at the scene while Bunnie grinned, and Lupe and Nicole got knowing smirks.

"I-I-I-I-I-I..." Sonic couldn't manage to say a word, as Sally literally mesmerized him. Sally knew that, even with all the fun she was having at his expense, she had to move now, as Sonic would eventually recover from the surprise. Sally placed one of her hands behind her back, and morphed it into a large mallet. Then, in a split second, she literally shot the mallet at Sonic, who received it full force; the blue hedgehog was sent out of the sparring area, landing in very humiliating form, and pain finally made him react.

"Uuuuuugh... what happened?" Sonic groaned as Tails helped him stand up.

"Sally won." Tails explained him while Lupe and Bunnie congratulated Sally, who was now back to her normal shape.

"Gal, you're my idol." Bunnie laughed while high-fiving Sally. "Now we know you can use your powers to distract guys."

"Thanks, Bunnie. Still, I need more training, since not all guys will be that stunned, and not all my enemies will be males." Sally nodded.

"That's truth, Sally. That's why your next opponents will be females." Nicole informed her. "Bunnie, you're next."

"Good luck." Lupe said to the rabbit before walking out of the sparring area.

While Bunnie and Sally made some warming up moves, and Lupe joined Tails at assisting Sonic, Nicole checked out her sensors, not just to evaluate Sonic's state after the impact, but also to see if the little 'surprise' she had arranged was on his way.

"Alright Sally girl, are you ready?" Asked Bunnie as she was preparing her stance.

"Ready when you are, Bunnie," Replied Sally as she made herself muscular and prepared her stance.

Sally and Bunnie then battled it out as they each delivered punches to each others but managed to block them all. Sally then tried to kick Bunnie but the rabbit's metallic legs were just as effective blockers as her arms, so none of Sally's attacks hit her. Bunnie then tried to kick Sally as well, and the princess went into full dodging instead of trying to block them; again, the attacks didn't injure their target.

Sally realized they were evenly matched in skills, so decided to go for a strength test; she grabbed Bunnie's hand with her's, and tried to take her down. Bunnie kept balance and linked her other hand with Sally's free one, both females started a power struggle that lasted for almost 2 minutes until Sally started gaining the upper hand; Bunnie's bionic limbs were resisting well, but her still organic arm was having troubles to handle Sally's strength, especially since both of Sally's arms had the same power. In her attempt to keep with the struggle, Bunnie started losing the support on her legs, and Sally finally managed to force Bunnie to kneel down.

"This spar is over." Nicole ended the fight, as her sensors told her that Bunnie had started straining herself too much, and wouldn't be able to win this battle without risking a very serious injury.

"Phew... that was power... serious one." Bunnie stood up, rubbing her organic arm while Sally morphed her body back to normal. Even with her powers, Sally had to make a very big effort to win this battle.

"I can say the same about you, Bunnie. Well done." Sally shook hands with Bunnie while Nicole and Tails evaluated this battle; considering the results, it was obvious that Sally would be more than a match for any of Robotnik's robotizated soldiers.

"Okay, now it`s Lupe's turn." Tails said to both Sally and Bunnie, so the rabbit girl could leave the sparring area and Lupe could enter.

"This will be an honor for me, Sally; I must warn you I'm not holding back." The wolf said to the princess.

"I already suspected that." Sally grinned as she took her fighting stance.

The battle started with a dashing attack from Lupe that Sally barely avoided; even if the wolf wasn't as fast as Sonic or as strong as Bunnie, her skill level was legendary, so Sally couldn't risk missing any move. The princess attacked back with the arm whips trick, with Lupe dodging and blocking most of the attacks. After several minutes of mutual attacks, Sally got an idea; the one enemy that would be the perfect match for Lupe was Lupe herself, so she morphed into her Mobian Wolf form.

Sally elongated her arms, legs, torso, and tail to the same lengths as Lupe's, while she changed her face to that of a wolf; the change was almost instantaneous this time.

Lupe grinned, already used to this trick by now but still impressed at the accuracy of Sally's transformation.

"Excellent form, Sally and you've even captured the face and tail, as well as the nose and ears, you probably should have been born a wolf and maybe one of the males in my pack would want to have date you," Said Lupe.

"Well thanks, Lupe," Replied Sally.

Both fighters then exchanged lightning-fast kicks and punches, blocking practically every attack; Sally then decided to play a trick by making her arms a lot harder than usual yet still fast enough to match Lupe's speed. This strategy paid off as Lupe started feeling pain in her arms when blocking Sally's attacks, forcing the female wolf to dodge and duck rather than blocking, which also made Lupe to attack less frequently as she was to busy with her defense moves. Eventually, Sally connected a hit so hard that Lupe, despite blocking it, yelped in pain and had to hold her arm, due to Sally's attacks hurting her limbs too much through most of the fight. Sally lost no time and threw a powerful kick at Lupe's mid section, sending her to the other side of the sparring area. Nicole, again, ended the fight before Lupe could get seriously hurt.

"Impressive, Sally." Lupe stood up and smiled at her friend. "You really have mastered your elastic form's attack moves."

"Thanks, Lupe, but I think I still need more training." Sally nodded and smiled back at Lupe.

"I'll be the judge of that."

Everyone turned when hearing a familiar male voice. There, standing behind the ones observing the previous match, was a red furred echidna, his arms crossed and a serious look on his face.

"Knuckles? When did you arrive?" Sonic asked his friendly... or 'moderately friendly' rival.

"A few minutes ago; just in time to see this fight. I admit, when Nicole sent me that message, I didn't believe it at first, but made me curious enough to come here." Knuckles approached the group, not losing sight of Sally."I admit it's quite a surprise to see you with super powers, Princess; you used to be more a planner than a fighter... and I see you're now doing both, using clever plans while fighting, uh?"

"I try my best. It`s nice to see you here, Knuckles." Sally smiled at the echidna, already knowing why Nicole called him. "Would you like to take a break before the spar? Knowing you, you ran all the way here."

"Yes, and you're not super fast as yours truly," Sonic grinned, "so it probably took you all day. Even I need a break after running for that much time."

"Then, guess we're all lucky I'm not you, Sonic." Knuckles smirked. "All that running was a perfect warming up. I can spar with Sally right now."

Sally nodded and she and Knuckles made some stretching moves (in Sally's case, very extreme ones) before fighting, while Tails and Bunnie applied an ointment on Lupe's arms before bandaging them.

"So, you got Knuckles to spar with Sally, huh? Talking about a serious match." Sonic turned at Nicole.

"The idea of these spars is to test Sally's abilities against assorted fight styles and powers; and it's extremely hard to find a hand-to-hand fighter as powerful as Knuckles; he's as skilled as Lupe, even stronger than Bunnie, and after fighting you so many times, he had developed impressive reflexes and speed as well." Nicole said to a nodding Sonic, who wouldn't disagree with her in any of these claims. Besides Knuckles, the only other fighter that would probably be a challenge this good for Sally's skills was Rouge, as the female bat was practically a flying, kicking, much-better-looking female version of Knuckles, and obviously, they wouldn't ask her to spar with Sally, knowing the bat wasn't as trustworthy as Knuckles, so the echidna remained the best option.

The battle started with Knuckles dashing at Sally and throwing a double punch at her; Sally blocked both attacks and kicked his chest, but Knuckles barely felt this. The echidna then grabbed Sally's arm and pulled her closer for a punch to the body, but Sally just allowed her arm to get stretched, keeping her body out of Knuckles` range, and then surprised him by wrapping her arm around him, in a snake-like hug. Knuckles struggled to get free, Sally actually making a considerable effort to resist these attempts; the princess then made a fist with her free hand, a fist as big as a basketball and hard like concrete. The moment Knuckles broke free of her embrace, Sally was already shooting her fist at his face, sending him the other side of the sparring area. Knuckles got stunned but not unconscious.

"Very good... guess now I have to take you seriously." Knuckles charged at Sally again, throwing a barrage of fast punches at her, Sally using her elasticity to bend and dodge to avoid all the hits. Sally continued with this for almost 2 minutes, knowing Knuckles would eventually get desperate and make a mistake.

Knuckles, growling in frustration, threw a particularly strong punch at Sally's face, but his fist got stopped by Sally's hand; a split second later, Sally was in her muscular form, surprising Knuckles, who didn't arrive in time to see her fight with Bunnie and therefore ignored she could do this. Sally took full advantage of this distraction and punched his face with her free hand. Knuckles shook his head, stunned, and couldn't stop Sally from punching his body several times until she judo-tossed him over her head. Knuckles landed on his back, and then Sally jumped over him, elbowing his chest; the impact expelled all air out of his lungs, leaving Knuckles breathless for the time being.

"That's enough. This match is..." Nicole stopped talking when Knuckles made a signal with his hands. Despite being breathless, Knuckles wasn't giving up so easily.

"Not yet.. this isn't over... until I say it." Knuckles, with some difficulty, stood up, glaring at Sally. It was obvious that Knuckles took spars as seriously as he would do with a real fight with an actual enemy.

Knuckles threw more punching attacks at Sally, who blocked them all and replied with punches of her own, making this a boxing match that she was dominating with relative ease, to the point of taking him down more than ten times before he lost his patience and used a different approach. Knuckles faked a punch at Sally, and when she got a defensive position, Knuckles pounced on her, getting Sally in a wrestling hold.

"Hah! Give up, Princess, because now I have... you..." Knuckles couldn't say anything else because Sally stretched and bended around his body, securing his arms, neck, back and legs, in an extremely tight embrace. Knuckles did his best to break free, but he lacked enough leverage with Sally securing all his limbs and not letting him get a solid point of support.

Sally stretched her neck so she could talk to Knuckles face to face; the princess moved the section of her body securing Knuckles' neck so he could talk back.

"Knuckles, it's over. Please, give up now. I don't want to knock you out, so, if you don't finish this fight, I'll be forced to tight you until you faint due lack of air."

"I... I..." Knuckles gritted his teeth, hating the idea of admitting defeat, but it was obvious now that Sally had won, and he wouldn't win no matter what. "Okay. I give up."

Sally nodded and released Knuckles, who took deep breaths now that Sally wasn't hugging his neck and his lungs could expand normally; his body was in such pain he had to sit down to recover after this beating. The princess changed back to her normal self and gave Knuckles a good look, finally realizing how much she had injured him during the fight; Knuckles had large bruises all over his face and upper body, and his right eye was quite swollen; same with his left cheek.

"Well done, Princess..." Knuckles sighed and looked down, the echidna still on the floor. "Well done."

"Same to you." Sally offered a hand to him. Knuckles sighed and looked away.

"Princess... please... allow me to stand up on my own... so I can conserve a little dignity."

"We should do that, but you're a guest here." Sonic, grinning, entered the sparring area, and helped Knuckles stand up; the echidna was so hurt he couldn't even fight back or argue with him.

"I'll take him to the infirmary." Bunnie carried Knuckles out of the sparring area after the rabbit gave Sally a praising look. Sally nodded at her and then Nicole approached, the computer noticing Sally's concern.

"Don't worry, Princess. Knuckles will recover in a couple of days. If my observations on body language, and data and memory files, are correct, his pride got more wounded than his body." Nicole said to Sally, who sighed in relief.

"Heh, then, considering Sally trashed him all over the place, his pride must need an emergency room." Sonic chuckled before Sally smirked at him.

"Wanna go a few more rounds with me, Sonic?" Sally gave him a crooked smile.

"Eh... look at the time; I'm late for dinner. See you later." Sonic grinned nervously before dashing away.

"Ah, my male role model." Tails shook his head, grinning, while Sally chuckled a bit and Nicole smiled at the scene.


	6. Wolf Getaway

Chapter 6 - Wolf Getaway

As Sally made her way towards her hut, Nicole appeared next to her, and walked aside the princess.

"Sally, Tails and I have considered the possibility of you spending a prolonged time in a particular animal shape."

"How so?" Sally asked as they finally entered the hut.

"You saw the problems you had when you tried to fly with bat-like wings; even with the simulations and Tails' assistance, the best mentor for you would be a real bat. The same way, you might need to spend time with other species in order to use their forms in a more effective, efficient manner."

"Mmm... you might have a point there. Then, if I transform into, let's say, a cat, I'd need to spend that day with Hershey so she can teach me how to use the claws for climbing and fighting, or how to use the tail for balance, right?"

"An excellent example and since Lupe is already visiting us, maybe you can start with that shape, the wolf one. She can teach you to use your nose for following a scent, and not just mimicking the shape; also, you have to learn how to use your jaws for fighting, just in case. Not to mention the possibility of Lupe training you in assorted battle skills."

"Good idea. I'll tell her about that tomorrow, during breakfast. It's already a bit late, and she's now getting ready to sleep in the guests hut." Sally commented Nicole, the holographic feline nodding at her in agreement.

Meanwhile, Knuckles was making his way out of the infirmary, using the walls for support; most of his torso was bandaged, and he had lots of band-aids all over his face, plus several bruises, small right after the spar, were now quite big, plus his face was so swollen he barely could open his right eye.

"Leaving already, Knuckles?"

The echidna groaned and looked up, finding Sonic in the hedgehog's usual relaxation place, a tree branch.

"How I knew that you'd somehow spot me on my way out of here?" Knuckles shook his head, stopping mid-way because of a sudden pain in the neck.

"Knuckles, Nicole can see anything and anyone around here; the only reason we feel comfortable with her looking over us all the time is because she's pretty nice and gives us our space... but you can bet your gloves that she would have called us if you were already exiting the place and nobody was there to stop you." Sonic shrugged, keeping a relaxed attitude about the whole thing.

"Yeah, I forgot about her. Nobody gets in or out without Nicole finding out." Knuckles growled a bit, not out of anger against Nicole, but due pain and the fact Sonic was looking at him in such a vulnerable state; Bunnie carrying the echidna to the infirmary was humiliating enough, as if he hadn't have enough with his defeat at Sally's hands.

"And you know I don`t let any of my friends to leave on their own when they're so badly hurt, including red echidnas with rock-hard skulls like you." Sonic finally jumped down the tree. "And you also know Sally didn't mean to humiliate or hurt you; it was a spar that went too rough. We've all had at least one of those, and I have the scars to prove it."

"YES, I KNOW." Knuckles snapped, but couldn't help but cringe in pain and holding his chest a moment later. "Nnnngh... The Princess really got my ribs."

"If it makes you feel better, she defeated all her sparring partners, including yours truly... not that I mind the method she used." Sonic rubbed his chin and grinned before getting back to semi-serious. "My point is, you are used to win all the time, and you have this whole proud and stoic warrior thing... it's cool, in some sort of lone fighter way, but it also makes you grumpier than usual when someone kicks your butt."

"Yes; not easy to accept." Knuckles sighed. "How do you..."

"Well, I almost never lose either, Knuckles, but when I do, hey, stuff happens. At least I lost to Sal while helping her practice her powers, and it wasn't a fight against Robby and his deadly toasters, that you can't lose because it means you're done. That's what sparring is for, to help your buddies improve their skills and also to improve your own."

"It must be an effect of the medication... you're actually talking as if knowing what you're talking about." Knuckles frowned yet eventually grinned a bit. "Well, don't get an ego... or an even larger ego from this, but I think you might be right."

"Yes, I'm cool like that." Sonic then motioned Knuckles to return to the infirmary. "Now, go back in there, have a nice night of sleep, and Tails and I will fly you back home after breakfast."

Knuckles didn't say anything else, but didn't object to Sonic's suggestion/invitation, and returned to the infirmary to finish his recovery. Sonic was tempted to help him, since the echidna was still limping, but he knew Knuckles' pride was already having a hard time accepting his need for medical help, and he wouldn't allow Sonic to help him walk back to his bed despite his injuries, so the hedgehog just followed him with his eyes until Knuckles was already inside the infirmary, and then returned to his tree branch to have some sleep himself.

"Maybe I'll dream with Sally's hot form." Sonic thought out loud before covering his mouth and then whispering, "Nicole, if you heard that, please, don't tell the princess."

After getting no answer for a minute or two, Sonic decided to take this silence as a 'No problem', sighed in relief, and went back to sleep.

The next morning, Sally wake up the next morning and headed over to Lupe's guest hut to talk to her about teaching her to use her wolf form, just as she was on her to have breakfast she bumped into none other, Lupe.

"Lupe, just the wolf I wanted to see, listen I need a favor," Said Sally.

"What is it?" Asked Lupe.

"Well, Nicole said I need to spend time with other species in order to use their forms in a more effective, efficient manner and I was wondering if you could teach me how to be a wolf." Asked Sally.

"Of course, Sally." Lupe smiled at the princess. "We can leave whenever you want."

"Thanks, Lupe." Sally grinned at this. "Just let me tell Tails so he can give us a ride in his plane... oh, wait, Sonic and him are gonna use the plane to get Knuckles back home."

"Knuckles is in good enough condition to leave?" Lupe asked, a bit concerned about the echidna's health.

"Lupe, it`s Knuckles we're talking about. Even if I turn myself into a rubber band to tie him up to the infirmary's bed, he'd find a way to leave." Sally said to a nodding Lupe, both females knowing how stubborn Knuckles could be, not to mention it would wound his pride even more.

"Guess it will be a good time to test my flying abilities." Sally pondered for a moment before deciding on the right form for such a long travel.

A while later, Lupe was gliding back to her territory... and the glider was Sally herself. Tails, Knuckles and Sonic gave them a little ride on the fox's plane, and once they were at the right height, the females jumped down, Sally morphing immediately into a glider, and thanks to some favorable winds, they were now half way. Sally was a bit worried about Lupe's comfort during the journey, but then again, being a warrior wolf, Lupe was more than capable of standing the cold wind, the speed, and the heights, and in fact, Lupe was enjoying it a lot. Besides, if they encountered some problem, or the wind no longer favored them, Sally could always morph into a parachute for a safe landing and then the females would finish the journey on foot.

Luckily, the wind was cooperating, so Lupe and Sally glided over the wolf village not so long after jumping. Lupe smiled and even waved hello to her people, as the wolves finally spotted them and got all together to receive their leader. Sally, with Lupe's help (after all, the female canine was doing most of the glider's control at the moment), made some circles around the village while starting the descent. Finally, they landed, Lupe's paws touching the ground without any problems, and when feeling they were no longer moving, Sally morphed back to normal, to all the villagers' amazement and surprise.

"My People, Princess Sally Acorn has only come by for a visit and for good reason, as she has acquired a new skill." Announced Lupe.

"What is this new skill?" Asked a wolf in the crowd, and everyone else gave him a questioning look, until the wolf realized he made a silly question, as he and everyone else just saw Sally morphing from a glider form to her natural one. "Oh, right... she can change her form... I'm shutting up now."

Lupe and her wolves offered Sally a welcome lunch, and after that, the Wolf Leader started Sally's training. Once the princess took her wolf form, Lupe started showing her how to use her canine nose for tracking; this was easier said than done, since Sally had rarely used her smelling sense for this as a normal rodent. Luckily, as Sally soon found out, a larger nose and muzzle could inhale a larger volume of air, containing the mini-particles that carried things and animals' scent. After an hour or so of practicing, Sally was doing a semi-decent work, even if, as Lupe told her, she`d still need to practice this skill, and also getting familiar with her friends back at home, so Sally would eventually be able to recognize each one's scent, something that would come handy in case she had no other way to find a missing friend than following her nose.

After this, Lupe passed to another particularly acute canine sense; hearing. Sally realized that wolves could not just hear a lot better than most animals, but also could detect the sound's origin with great precision thanks to their capacity to move their ears, using them like antennas. This wasn't as hard to dominate as the tracking lesson, and soon Sally found out she could actually hear better than the wolves since she could make her ears as big as she wanted. Of course, Lupe also informed her that larger ears and a better audition could make her a lot more sensitive to loud noises, as Sally soon found out when someone outside Lupe's house dropped a pot that crashed against the floor, creating a noise that gave Sally a light headache.

After that, Lupe passed to another particularly acute canine sense; vision. Sally tried to change her eyes to match a wolf's, not just in appearance, but in corneal dilation and other details that influenced the wolves' night vision, and after that, focused on long distance vision, that required a more precise, acute corneal and pupilar modifications than Sally's regular long distance sight. Soon, Sally found out that she could do this a lot better if making her eyes larger in size before trying to change her corneas and pupils, but Lupe advised her to not overdoing it, as a sudden change in light or distance could prove hurtful, like, for example, if she was using the night vision and then faced an intense flame or other light source on a sudden; wolves and other animals with similar optical adaptations could get used to the change after a very short time, but Sally, not being among those species, would need more time and it would more uncomfortable for her.

Once Sally got more or less used to her wolfish senses, Lupe showed her how to use her tail for balance, something Sally had never used before with her naturally short tail. Sally soon found herself moving faster and with more agility than ever, even using her tail to keep balance while making quick turns and direction changes while running; Sally also realized this was the reason Lupe started the lessons with the senses lessons, since she needed to use her hearing and sight to the max in order to keep balance and not losing sight of where she was running while using the wolf tail for the speed and direction changes. Sally got a bit thoughtful about how Sonic could move so fast and change his direction in the blink of an eye without having the advantages of a long tail, but then realized Sonic didn't need it as his brain and reflexes already worked fast enough to keep up with his body's speed.

Once Sally got used to her wolfish speed, Lupe showed her how to use her new found wolfish strength. Sally knew she wouldn't need this too much since, when needing super strength, she could just transform into her muscular form, but decided to practice it anyway. As expected, Sally was considerably stronger in this shape, even without increasing her muscular density beyond the normal limits of a wolf, and soon found herself lifting 3 or 4 times more weight than she could in her normal form. The resistance of her rubber muscles also helped her getting the natural stamina of a normal wolf, allowing her to apply her force for longer periods.

After practicing this, Lupe decided to start training Sally in the use of her people's weaponry, especially the spears and arrows. Using her new canine sight, Sally realized her accuracy was a lot better than before, even considering she had already trained with similar weaponry in the past. Lupe also trained her in the use of the battle staff, Sally making her own contribution when making her staff out of her own hand; Lupe managed to hit and take Sally down a number of times, without hurting her a lot, until the princess started getting used to the staff's length and moves. Lupe even had the idea of making Sally transform into a battle staff herself; the result was a rubbery staff that was both flexible and resistant, and thanks to Lupe's own wolf strength, she could handle Sally's new form despite the staff being as heavy as the princess' normal self; with some effort, Sally could make one or both of her edges very pointy, so her body could also be used as a spear. This would surely prove useful if one of the princess' companions needed a weapon, or if someone had to carry her, making this assistance a very unique form of cooperation and a useful way of carrying a weapon that was also a teammate.

"Mmm..." Lupe examined Sally's spear form, noticing it felt quite hard without being extremely heavy (at least for the wolf). "Sally, you think you can morph into a shield?"

Sally responded immediately, changing into a large shield, a shape she had already practiced.

"Okay, Sally, I'm going to use you to hit something. Tell me if it hurts." Lupe then used the living shield to hit a nearby boulder. Sally then separated her head from the rest of her body by stretching her neck.

"I feel the hit, but it didn't really hurt." Sally informed the wolf.

"Mmm... can you morph into a gauntlet now, please?"

Sally wrapped her body around Lupe's arm, and morphed into a battle gauntlet that covered it almost entirely, getting sure to still have some flexibility in the areas covering the joints (the wrist, fingers and elbow) so it didn't interfere with Lupe's arm and hand's moves. The wolf moved her arm and, when realizing it was comfortable enough, made some quick battle moves, grinning when getting another idea.

"Sally, I want you to form a suit of armor around my body. I'm sure you can be a very good one."

Sally then wrapped Lupe`s full body, and a moment later started morphing the right way; once she got sure Lupe could breath, talk and see (not covering her face entirely), Sally opened some spaces in the 'helmet' for Lupe's ears, and then in her lower back to make space for the wolf``s tail. Sally proceeded to make more elastic joint-covers, yet still hardening them partially, in the right places, so Lupe's joints would still have a certain level of protection without messing with their mobility. Sally made sure to make the armor suit a lot thicker and more resistant in the areas protecting vital organs, namely Lupe's brain, heart, lungs, kidneys and abdominal organs. Finally, Sally formed some sort of glass frame around Lupe's eyes, protecting that area as well without messing with her sight.

"Ready for a test run?" Sally did the 'separating head' trick again to talk face to face with Lupe, who nodded in reply.

Lupe started jumping, kicking and punching around, checking out her general mobility before going for a literal run. The wolf dashed at full speed, realizing Sally's body didn't just protect her, but also added Sally's strength to her own, and the rubbery material in Lupe's back paws/feet made her steps longer, faster, and needing a lot less effort to reach her top speed, and even surpassing it with ease.

"Good, Sally." Lupe stopped running when finding a clear in the woods. "Now, try to form a battle stick in my hands."

Lupe obeyed and, by stretching and hardening one section covering Lupe's arm, provided the wolf with a moderate length battle stick. Lupe made some quick moves, deciding it worked perfectly.

"Now... a whip!"

The battle stick became a lot longer and considerably more flexible. Lupe used it perfectly, as if using a real whip.

"Knuckles Fists."

Sally hardened the area around Lupe's hands, and grew large spikes on their back. Lupe then charged at a nearby tree, one with quite a thick log, and punched it twice, once with each fist, leaving two big dents and making splinters to jump around. Lupe felt no pain at all, the 'gloves' protecting her hands perfectly and absorbing most of the impact while the spikes made the damage on her target.

Lupe continued testing the 'Sally Suit' for a while, making her form new weapons, every time getting them better and faster than before. The wolf could only imagine how good this would work if Sally provided herself as a battle suit for Sonic, Knuckles or Bunnie.

"I think this is enough weaponry test for the day, Sally." Lupe said to her friend. "Now... something less destructive. Try changing into other clothes."

Sally obeyed immediately, the princess feeling a bit mischievous and playful at the moment; Lupe felt the suit of armor becoming even more comfortable, and the whole of it becoming thinner and feeling more like regular clothing than a protective armor.

"Let's see how I look now." Lupe walked to a nearby pond, with crystal-clear water, that would work perfectly as a mirror... and gasped when looking at herself.

"A... clown? Or... it`s a jester... or..." Lupe made an effort to get back her cool... and then broke out laughing loudly. "Sally, I didn't know you had this sense of humor!"

"What can I say? Sonic is a bad influence." Sally, grinning, stretched her neck to talk directly to the wolf, who was now trying to control her laughter. "I'll change back to normal.."

"Wait, Sally, before that, let`s see if this costume actually has some battle potential." Lupe then made a series of sommersaults, the jester outfit allowing perfect agility. Then, Lupe looked up at a nearby tree, a very tall one.

"Sally... Spring Shoes."

Sally formed 2 large springs under Lupe's feet/paws, and a moment later the wolf got literally shot up in the air thanks to the bouncing action, reaching the top of the tree with ease.

"Okay, now the arms, Sally." Lupe pointed at a branch on a nearby tree and then made a grabbing move with her hand. Since Sally's jester outfit provided gloves, the princess had little problem to extend the gloves' fingers like living ropes, reaching the branch and wrapping around it perfectly. Lupe jumped from the branch she originally was, and made a rope-swing, reaching the other tree with ease.

"This has potential." Lupe grinned and did the same grabbing move with the other hand. Sally repeated the action, wrapping the fingers around another tree's branch while releasing the other one, and Lupe jumped again. After practicing a few more times, Lupe, thanks to Sally's fingers, was now swinging from a tree to the other, making this a very quick, almost entirely silent locomotion. After a while, Sally no longer extended her fingers, but the whole arm, grabbing the branches with the whole hand, making it a firmer, more secure hold, and the few times Sally realized the branch wouldn't resist, and the other hand was already grabbing another branch, the princess would extend another part of her body, like her legs or torso, to grab another tree, securing Lupe and making sure the wolf wouldn´t fall and the 'travel' was still as fast and agile as before.

"Okay, now the legs, Sally." Lupe looked down at the ground and extended her legs; Sally understood the gesture and stretched the 'boots' of the jester outfit until they touched the ground. Then, Lupe stopped the swinging and started walking, her body way over the ground while Sally's elasticity provided perfect stilts; at first, Sally thought about extending some parts of the suit to improve the balance, but Lupe's own agility was more than enough to allow a quick, secure walking, even when Sally made the stilts a little 'bouncy' for longer steps, and soon Lupe was moving almost as fast as she would do by running at her top speed with a lot less effort. The wolf theorized that, in a plain terrain, free of trees and other big obstacles, this trick would allow a very fast, secure walking, with the added benefit of a very ample sight of the area provided by the increased height.

"Sally, what if you were to extend my torso?" Lupe suggested Sally.

"Uh... that wouldn't be a good idea, Lupe. Remember I'm the one stretching, not you; that can probably hurt you. The most I can do is extending the torso area but then some of your body will end very loose inside myself." Sally told the wolf. To prove her point, Sally started doing that, and, as said, she could only stretch herself, both the legs and torso sections, and Lupe no longer could feel her own legs covered by Sally's body, all her lower body moving almost freely inside Sally's body.

"Okay, I see what you mean. Let`s try something different... change into a balloon like form, and see if you can carry me inside."

Sally started sucking air inside herself, and soon Lupe was entirely covered except for her own face, something necessary for the wolf's breathing, and Sally's form was now entirely spherical, trapping enough air to both float and keep Lupe comfortable inside her. Lupe still had the jester hat, but the rest of her body no longer resembled the jester suit, as it obviously lost this shape when overstretching and making itself thin and flexible enough for the balloon shape.

"Perfect... okay, let's prove this form working as a ball."

Sally hardened her surface, so no longer wasn't as flexible as the balloon form, but still not rock-hard or anything close to that. Doing this, the 'ball' fell down, no longer being light enough for floating, but the contained air was still enough to make her bounce; due the size of the 'ball', the bounce was quite impressive, getting as high as some of the forest's tallest trees. They had to stop soon, however, since the bouncing wasn't as easy to control as a directed flight, and with Lupe's face uncovered, it was possible for her to get injured if falling face down.

After a while, they stopped this test and Sally morphed again into the regular jester suit. Lupe then suggested trying some weapon shapes for the hands; first, Sally made the suit's gloves big enough to hold a watermelon on each hand, and then, once Lupe got used to the gloves' size, asked the princess to morph them into mallets, with excellent hitting results, making trees to tremble when hitting them.

Lupe then looked at her 'suit's' hands, and got another idea.

"Let`s test your precision with more complex shapes, Sally. Try morphing the hands, and just the hands, into someone's face... let's say, Sonic's."

Sally started morphing the right hand into a hedgehog face; it took her some time since this was considerably more delicate and precise than the mallet shape, but soon made a good enough impression of Sonic's face and head, including his hedgehog's quills. Encouraged by this, Sally practiced with other faces, including Tails, Bunnie, Knuckles, Nicole and Lupe herself.

"Mmm...you think you can use this to create a mask for me, Sally?"

Sally reacted by extending the jester hat's over Lupe's face, leaving spaces for her mouth, nose and eyes. Sally then morphed this section until it looked exactly like her own face; Lupe then asked Sally to change the feet back into the 'spring-like' mode so they could return to the crystal-clear pond and the wolf could see the mask; aside from the snout being a little bit longer than Sally's original one (due Lupe's face being longer), it was a very good copy.

"Excellent job." Lupe admired her face on the water. "Now, let's try it with Sonic's."

Sally made another perfect impression; then, another one, this time with Bunnie's face... one that didn't work as well as the others since, obviously, Lupe's snout was a lot bigger than Bunnie's face, so the result was a very long nosed rabbit mask.

"Okay, there's one of this trick's weaknesses; the face you copy can't be shorter than the face under the 'mask', or it would be too noticeable. Besides, you can't mimic other colors... no big problem with Sonic's face since his fur is already blue, like your suit, but Bunnie's color scheme is completely different, so it wouldn't trick anyone even if the mask could cover my face perfectly." Lupe thought out loud.

"I think we've tested this long enough; should we call it a day?" Asked Lupe as she was getting used to the jester suit, but had to finish with Sally's training for the day.

"Yes, but allow me to take you home." Said Sally as she stretched out her hands into glider wings and formed two spring shoes under Lupe's feet, before shooting themselves up in the air and flew back to the village.


	7. The Elastic Tapestry

Chapter 7: The Elastic Tapestry

As Lupe and Sally flew over the canyon, the princess started getting ideas for new outfits and shapes. It was obvious that the armor and jester suits could be quite useful, helping her to both fight and protect a friend at once during a battle, not to mention it was a good way for stealthy entrances. A while later, Lupe made a signal to Sally, motioning her to fly down, as they were almost arriving the village.

"This was a great training day, Lupe. Thanks again." The princess said to the wolf as they finally landed and Sally changed back to normal.

"You're very welcome. This was a great experience for me as well." Lupe smiled at her friend. "Now, let's take a well deserved break while we think about what we can practice tomorrow."

Sally nodded and followed after Lupe as they entered the village. The wolf leader was already thinking about whatever training she could still provide, and realized that she had already taught Sally most of what the wolf could probably contribute in Sally's power improvement. Any other help she could further provide would probably be limited to testing new outfits and how to use them in battle.

"_Guess now we only have to practice the wolf form a bit more so she can use it perfectly." _Lupe thought and then got a little grin. "_And maybe practice her shape-mimicking when covering someone."_

Lupe discussed this idea with Sally over dinner, and the princess agreed, as it would be a good way to surprise an opponent, thinking Sally was fighting alone while, in reality, covering an ally literally hidden under her rubbery form.

The next day, after a good night of rest, several wolves woke up to see Sally in her wolf form. She had begun practicing the battle moves Lupe had taught her the previous day.

"Good morning, Princess." A young wolf girl addressed Sally while approaching her. "If you agree, I'll wake up our leader to tell her you are ready for your training."

"Thanks, but it's not necessary. She's already awake." Sally smiled at the wolf, and then a second later, Sally morphed into her liquid rubber-like form. Her clumpy-mess of a body fell to the ground and revealed the real Lupe, who had been inside the princess wolf's form the whole time. At first sight, it looked like just regular Sally, in her elastic suit, practicing her moves in wolf shape.

"That's... I..." The wolf girl, as everyone watching the scene, was temporarily stunned at this, barely noticing Sally changing back to normal right next to Lupe.

"Yes, it's a very surprising ability. We hope Robotnik will get just as surprised as all of you." Lupe smiled at her people while Sally held back a chuckle.

This trick was particularly complex, as Sally found out that same morning. Besides covering Lupe's body, as it happened the previous day with the several outfits they practiced, Sally had to fit the wolf's body just perfectly, no leaving any visible spot, meaning she also had to cover Lupe's snout, including her nose, and her ears as well. Lupe was almost completely deaf inside this disguise, and Sally had to provide tiny holes for the nostrils so Lupe could breath too. Finally, Sally had to still leave the eye spaces unchanged so Lupe could still see, meaning anyone observing carefully enough would notice the differently colored eyes.

"Okay, Sally, now, let's practice with the outfits we did yesterday. This time, don't cover me, but change your shape and your suit to look like those outfits." Lupe instructed the princess. Sally nodded and then made a quick morph, ending with herself dressed in the jester costume she had practiced the previous day.

"Princess, you look like a clown." A random wolf chuckled a bit.

"No, I don't." Sally grinned before making her nose very big and round, and covering it with a bit of her outfit, to make it resemble a blue clown nose; for added effect, Sally pressed her nose between two of her fingers, making a 'honking' noise. "Now, I do."

This got general laughter from all the wolves. Sally grinned and decide to have a bit more fun, changing her face to her impression of Lupe; the sight of their leader (or someone resembling her a lot) in a clown disguise increased the laughing's volume, and even Lupe found herself chuckling a bit. To continue with the 'show', Sally morphed her face into Sonic's.

"I must hurry to the circus. I'm fastest clown alive." Sally did her best impression of Sonic's voice, and, thanks to her mastering the moves and thickness of her throat and vocal cords, it was very close to the real deal, which made the impression a lot funnier.

Sally then changed her face to Bunnie's, and then to Knuckles and Nicole's, yet stopped when changing into Knuckles... because this image was so hilarious (the most serious warrior wearing the craziest disguise) that some wolves had to excuse themselves before they had an 'accident' at the spot, and Sally herself was having troubles keeping a straight face.

Sally noticed Lupe was distracted at the moment, trying to keep her chuckling from erupting into full volume laughter. The princess grinned and, without anyone having time to react, she jumped over Lupe and shape-shifted into a very girlish outfit, covering Lupe. The wolf gasped when looking at herself.

"I look like Amy!" Lupe yelped, the other wolves laughing loudly at this. Lupe then grinned and started doing some girly jumping and walking around, mimicking Amy's voice as well as she could.

"Look at my cute dress. Now, let me have Sonic so my obsession is no longer one-sided!" Lupe stopped talking when Sally provided her with a blue mallet, that was a perfect copy of Amy's, attached to the rest of the outfit (after all, it was Sally's body) by a very thin rubbery string. Lupe grinned and handled the mallet with great expertise, pretending to be about to smash someone.

"And if anyone gets in my way, I'll flatten him or her like a pancake." Lupe got back to her Amy's impression, again, with general laughter from everyone around. Sally had to jump away from Lupe and change back to normal because she was about to explode on laughing as well, therefore no longer capable of keeping up with the transformation.

"Okay, we found out another weakness of your power; vulnerable to laughter." Lupe grinned at the laughing princess, who was now taking some deep breaths to recover enough air to reply.

"Got it." Sally finally calmed down. "I have another idea... for this 'suiting' trick. Wanna try it now?"

Lupe nodded and extended her arms, allowing Sally an easier, more comfortable 'suiting' of the wolf. Once Sally covered Lupe, she gave her an outfit very similar to the elastic one, and then started inflating herself, molding her body over Lupe's muscles and then hardening partially. When she was done, Lupe looked like a bodybuilding championess.

"Princess, you had been working out?" A random wolf joked.

"Yes, a bit. It's very noticeable, isn't it?" Lupe grinned and started making some muscle poses, extending and flexing her body to show-off the artificial built Sally provided. Then, Lupe walked next to two of the bulkier wolves watching, and lifted them with ease, one on each hand, sitting comfortably on her palms. The other wolves chuckled and clapped at this.

"Now... we must try with more weight." Lupe put the wolves down and instructed them to bring something heavy. The 2 bulky canines, along with another pair, returned a few moments later, pulling/pushing a large carriage that had several food sacks in it; the whole thing was probably over a ton and a half.

Lupe moved to one side of the carriage, and then lifted it without breaking a sweat, the strain on her 'muscles' very noticeable, as Sally provided all the extra power the wolf needed. Then, to make things even more impressive, she lifted the carriage over her head with just one hand, not feeling it at all.

After finishing this 'test', Lupe called several of her strongest warriors for a little tug-o-war; Sally, again, provided the rope by elongating one section of her body, making it long and thick enough to work as a very resistant rope. A few moments later, Lupe was competing against 15 large, bulky wolves, and despite how much they pulled and resisted, the Lupe-Sally team-up defeated them in less than 2 minutes. Considering all wolves had impressive stamina, this was quite a feat.

Lupe then called the defeated wolves, and offered them a chance to redeem themselves by challenging them to wrestle her to submission, even going as far as allowing several of them to try at once. The wolves nodded and accepted the offer almost immediately.

No less than 7 wolves pounced on Sally, and tried to pin her down... but she just threw her away. Then, the rest of the wolves charged at her, from different angles, trying to take down Sally by attacking her joints and pushing her down; Sally resisted well yet couldn't throw them away as she did with the others, since this group had brightened up and weren't allowing her to grab any plus they kept a good hold on the canine-rodent team; the rest of the wolves, now more or less recovered from the earlier throw, joined their companions, and soon Sally and Lupe were entirely covered by the large, buff wolves... until they were violently expelled away thanks to a sudden move from Lupe, literally shaking them off her body and Sally. It was a good thing all these wolves were trained, resistant warriors, or they would have ended badly hurt from the severe landing several feet around the females.

"I think we had enough humiliation for today, don't you think, Ma'am?" One of the muscular wolves, a bit more educated than the others, said to Lupe, in a half-joking way.

"You are probably right." Lupe grinned and then whispered something to Sally. "We'll try another suit now.

Sally started morphing again, making the 'suit' a lot less muscular and much tighter, plus covering Lupe's snout and most of her head with a hood of sorts, yet still leaving big enough holes for Lupe to breath, see and hear. After a few moments, Lupe was entirely dressed up in a blue and white ninja suit.

"A ninja..." A young wolf cub exclaimed in awe.

"Actually, since I'm a female, the right term would be 'shinobi', but yes, you're right." Lupe nodded at the youngster and then, surprising everyone, she made a straight 20 feet high jump, and then, on mid-air, threw what seemed to be a cable with a hook (again, part of Sally's body 'playing' this part), and reached a nearby house's rooftop. Lupe then pulled the cable in order to impulse herself to the rooftop, landing in such a silent way that even the wolves' overly sensitive ears barely registered any sound.

Lupe continued jumping around the village, the elasticity provided by the Sally-Suit allowing extremely high, fast yet silent leaps, and even some acrobatic maneuvers that were hard even for a skilled acrobat. Lupe then thought about going back to the area where they were training yesterday and thought about what she could practice on. Then Sally fired kunai attached to a chain and fired it at a nearby building to grab on to, which served perfectly for a swinging move similar to the one they performed the previous day with Sally's stretchable hands and legs; of course, Sally could very well use that trick again, especially knowing already that it was an effective way to move quite fast, but it wouldn't fit the ninja disguise, and they had to practice remaining 'in character' so any observant ignoring the secret behind the 'suit' would think he or she was watching a real ninja and not suspecting it was actually a ruse performed by a wolf warrior and an elastic rodent.

After jumping for a while, and while taking a break on a rooftop, Lupe looked down the street and noticed her husband was looking for her. The female wolf then got a sly idea.

"Sally, can you give me a... very attractive outfit?" Lupe grinned. "I'm thinking about Sonia, Sonic's sister; remember how her clothes look like?"

"Yes, something like this." Sally chuckled and started morphing into a perfect replica of Sally's outfit; obviously, in blue and white, because Sally couldn't change his colors. The only exception was the belt, since Sally decided to use her head and neck there; this allowed her a very good point of view of everything, rather than keeping her head hidden in some other spot.

"So what's the plan here, Lupe?" Sally looked up. "And... I think I'm gonna talk to you without looking up from now on. I can't even see your face from here."

"Good thinking, Sally; and about my plan... I wanna surprise my mate with a little clothing change and the right attitude." Lupe grinned and jumped down, landing right behind Lobo.

"Ah, Lupe, there you..." Lobo, being a warrior wolf, had a very good hearing sense, so had no problems hearing her landing, but stopped talking when noticing her very tight, sexy clothing. "I... I... I..."

"Do it, My Love. You know I adore when you do." Lupe, very seductively, touched his chest and used her best flirty face. Sally, from the belt (well, she was the belt), looked at Lobo's large happy smile and then noticed him taking a very deep breath.

"**HOOOOOOWL!**" Lobo howled in excitement while wagging his tail at full speed. Lupe grinned at this; her husband, and basically any male wolf, howled at full volume when getting particularly excited, and this was one of his best howls ever.

"You look amazing, My Love!" Lobo smiled lovingly at her while looking all over Lupe's gorgeousness. Of course, since he was paying VERY close attention to every detail, it was inevitable for him to eventually notice the belt had eyes and a very sly grin.

"Sally." Lobo chuckled slightly at first, the volume slowly increasing until he erupted into a full, hearty laughter. "Really, when you two are together you get more playful than any cub I know, even our children!"

"Well, the things I want to do right now aren't exactly suitable for children." Lupe continued with her flirty, super seductive mood, enjoying touching Lobo's very well developed pectorals and abs with her index finger.

"Hey, just remember I'm still here!" Sally, still in a very good mood but now a bit wary about the possible development of these events, talked in a slightly higher volume than the wolves. "And don't expect me to transform into a bed, or a couch, or mattress, or whatever you feel more comfortable with."

"Ah, don't worry, Sally." Lobo grinned at the 'belt' before winking an eye to his mate. "We only need a tent for little coverage. Hope you don't mind keeping up that shape for the rest of the day."

"Aw, just for the day? I wanted the whole night too." Lupe, following the joke (or half-joke, since they weren't kidding about everything), winked an eye back to Lobo.

"Enough you two. I'm starting to feel like some sort of living motel." Sally chuckled a bit. At that moment, Maria, who had been looking for her parents, appeared on scene.

"Hey, nice outfit, Mom." Maria then remembered about Sally's powers and how she had been practicing them with her mother. "Oh, wait... hi, Sally."

"Hello, Maria." Sally stretched a bit of her body and formed a hand to wave 'Hello' to the young wolf.

"Sorry about interrupting the fun, but we just got a message from one of our scouts. It seems Robotnick is rebuilding one of his old bases, not that far from our territory." Maria's words changed Sally and the couple's mood into Mission Mode almost instantly.

"I thought he never returned to his old headquarters." Lupe looked down at the belt to talk with Sally as directly as possible.

"Guess he's running out of places to build new lairs. After all, we destroy them all; it might be easier for him to rebuild one of the less damaged ones than building another from scratch." Sally commented.

"Then, we'll better go get sure that destroyed base remains destroyed." Lobo exchanged a look with Lupe before they looked back at Maria.

"Maria, get the scout to our home so we can get all the details. We're having an incursion tonight." Lupe said to Maria, who nodded and dashed away to obey the orders.

Sally got a thoughtful expression that soon changed into a determination one. It was time for her to show Robotnick what she could do with the powers he had accidentally given to her.


	8. A New Elastic Being

Chapter 8 - A New Elastic Being

The new Robotnik base, that, as said, was in fact an old one getting rebuilt, was located several miles away from the wolves' village, in a valley that was devastated a long time ago by a forest fire and, on more recent times, by one of Sonic's classic visits to Robotnik that culminated with a massive explosion that pretty much eliminated whatever plant life left at the place. Being a location a lot more hostile than most deserts, it was no surprise that the wolves, or any other animal, either sentient or wildlife, avoided the area, so, location-wise, it was actually a very good place for the evil scientist to move his operations there.

Of course, the location also made very hard to transport the necessary material and equipment, so the process wasn't as fast as usual, especially due to the special precautions Robotnik had to consider while rebuilding, namely the possibility of being discovered by the wolves, so he had to station several guard robots for a few days before actually starting constructing, so they could protect the area and the supplies the heavy-duty robots transported there; the whole operation had lasted over a month now, so the base was already half-operational by the time Robotnik decided to move there for his new project; with all his headquarters usually ending as a wasteland due to the intervention of the Freedom Fighters, the madman always had to plan ahead and start building new bases before those working at the time were destroyed.

Unfortunately for Robotnik, despite all these measures, it was just a matter of time before a wolf spotted one of his watch robots during patrolling, and this wolf lost no time to inform his leaders. Less than one hour after informing Lupe and Lobo, the wolf leaders and Sally had already prepared a 'Break In and Destroy' operation. Normally, they would have waited a bit more before even attempting this kind of attack, at least enough to call for back-up, but even Sonic would need some time to arrive to the wolves' town, and it was imperative to destroy the base before it was completely operational and with full defensive capacity. So far, it seemed all the surveillance system was limited to Robotnik's cybernetic patrollers, with no alarms, video cameras or traps set yet, so a good stealthy group actually had a great chance to destroy the whole place without needing Tails' inventions, or the battle capacity of Sonic, Bunnie or Knuckles; besides, now that Sally had powers of her own, she was pretty much all the 'firepower' the wolves would need if things got harder than expected... and it would be hard enough since they'd attack during daytime instead of waiting to the night; usually, this was suicide, but it was possible that Robotnik, due to his usual fast working, could have better security ready by night, so it was imperative to get there at once.

Later that day, following the scout who found the base, the group finally got close enough to see the half-complete building. Knowing it would be difficult to move in this area due to the lack of vegetation to provide them with coverage (dead trees weren't as good as live, leaves-covered ones), Lupe made the wolves separate into smaller groups.

"Maria, you're going West with 3 scouts. Remember..."

"I know, Mother. We're only the back-up team." Maria sighed slightly yet nodded.

Truth be told, Lupe hesitated a bit about including Maria in the team when they were planning the incursion, but, playing the Leader and Strategist roles instead of the Mother one, Lupe knew her daughter was already one of the best scouts in the whole village, and was perfectly capable of handling a fight, so eventually accepted Maria's eager request to assist in this mission. Of course, Lupe and Lobo couldn't stop worrying about her welfare, as any parent would, so ordered her to stay on the sidelines and only enter combat if there was no other way out. Maria didn't like this idea that much but she honored both her duties as a Warrior and the respect she owed Lupe and Lobo as both her parents and pack leaders, so offered no complain.

While Lupe and Lobo gave a last look to the building in front of them, and decided the best routes to approach undetected, Sally, while standing behind the wolf leaders, stretched her neck so she could talk face-to-face with Maria, the young wolf already preparing to follow Lupe's orders and therefore moving away from the leaders by now.

"Maria, you know your parents are only trying to protect you while still being good leaders and allowing you to participate, right?"

"Yes, Princess, I know. It's just that it's not easy to be the best warriors' daughter; I want to prove myself but they want to keep me safe... and I can't go against the orders of both the pack leaders and my parents; and considering they're both at once, you can see how this works for me." Maria replied in a whisper, just like Sally was talking to her, so their conversation wouldn't be heard by the other wolves... or more precisely, so the other wolves could ignore it more easily, since, due to their superior hearing, they would still be able to hear the whispers if focusing enough on the sound.

"I know. Still, you'll do a good job. After all, you're a Mobian Wolf Warrior..." Sally grinned while her face morphed into her wolf shape. "Like everyone here."

Maria smiled back at Sally while the princess morphed the rest of her body, including her tail, into a wolf's and returned her neck to its normal size; in case Robotnik could discover the group, Sally's transformation would fool him into thinking all the intruders were normal warriors without any superpower. Maria, looking at her parents and Sally from behind, could appreciate that Sally had made her wolf form at least the same size as her mother and with a similar complexion (lean yet very strong) to make her disguise a lot more believable.

Finally, the wolves dispersed around, each group approaching the building from different angles and using the few dead trees and some boulders for coverage. Besides their normal weaponry, Sally and the wolf leaders had provided each warrior with a small explosive charge; even if, by tradition, the Mobian Wolves usually relied on their old yet effective weaponry, they had learned by experience that many of Robotnik's high technology weapons could only be bested by superpowers (that only a handful of Mobians of assorted species possessed, and most weren't even born with them) or by modern technology, so Lupe made arrangements with the Freedom Fighters so her wolves could have at least some bombs and medium-level technology weapons for emergencies and special operations like this one.

As the wolves (including the 'fake one') got closer to the base, none of them noticed several mini-robots cleverly camouflaged as rocks and fallen branches. Robotnik didn't make them advanced enough to be useful as weapons, but they were an excellent alarm system that could send signals to the heavily armed guard-bots, something that happened when one of the warriors of Maria's mini-group walked too close to one of the camouflaged devices. Almost instantly, dozens of hovering guard robots started swarming around the base, ready to get the intruders.

Sally recognized this particular robot model; they weren't very powerful and could be destroyed with relative ease, but their laser weapons and large numbers made them dangerous anyway. Knowing the stealth part of the mission was pretty much ruined, the princess jumped out of her hiding place and grabbed a normal rock; then, she increased the muscle density of her arms, not enough to transform into her Muscular Self, but gaining enough strength to throw the rock (that was almost her same size and probably 10 times heavier) against a group of the flying robots, destroying a dozen of them with the impact. The remaining robots then turned at her and started shooting at the princess, who started running away while using the trees and boulders for coverage against the blasts; luckily for her, Lupe and Lobo were already fighting as well, each wolf taking out a bow and arrows, and showing their near-perfect aim by taking down several robots with precise shots to their most vulnerable spots.

The rest of the wolves joined the battle, but unfortunately, another large number of robots joined as well, these ones of an entirely different design. These were much bigger, still with hovering capacities, and instead of lasers, they shot nets and cables to capture enemies; since the wolves were too busy fighting the first robots, they weren't entirely prepared to face the newcomers, and practically all of them (Sally included) got captured. The princess then nodded at Lupe (carried away in a separate net), and Lupe then made a silent signal to the other wolves; Sally, with her powers, could break free instantly, but she was allowing herself to be captured so the robot could carry her inside the building, and Lupe, understanding the plan, got sure the rest of her warriors did the same and didn't try to escape, even if they still resisted a bit since a peaceful surrender would be too suspicious. Maria had to make an effort to fight her urges to break free; when captured, the robot cables made some deep cuts through her clothing, and she wasn't looking forward to losing most of her clothing during a battle, especially with her parents and many male warriors around her same age around at the moment.

"Ah, I have visitors." Robotnik stopped working on a large machine to receive his captives. The inside of the building looked exactly like most of his bases; a mix of a laboratory and a factory, with the only difference being that this one was only half-finished, yet already operational enough for him to work.

"You are the visitor, Robotnik, and not a welcome one." Lupe snapped at Robotnik as the large scientist approached her and the prisoners, all of them held by the robots in front of their master. "This valley is part of our territory, so we demand you to leave at once."

"You're not exactly in the best position to make any demands." Robotnik grinned evilly at Lupe. "And well, since your 'people' weren't using the place, and this used to be one of my many homes, I saw no problem of moving back here... I mean, despite the occasional unlikable visitors, this lab has lots of privacy, abundance of raw materials, and the best part, a good supply of test subjects."

"Test subjects... you want to use us as guinea pigs, isn't it?" Lobo growled at the human, the muscular canine knowing quite well how much Robotnik enjoyed experimenting on his prisoners.

"Very perceptive, and yes, I'm working on a special project. You see, some time ago, your Freedom Fighter friends destroyed another base of mine, and before leaving, they took something of mine; super powers." Robotnik frowned before looking back at the machine he was currently working with, his grin reappearing instantly. "However, with the information I've gathered, I'll soon be able to duplicate my destroyed invention and use it to gain powers of my own. Just imagine myself, as physically powerful as incredibly mentally gifted. I'll crush any and all of my enemies with my bare hands... especially Sonic. Hah, I'll squash him like a blue fly!"

Sally growled at the mad man's rant, not just because of the way he talked about Sonic, but also about his intentions with the machine; apparently, he was now planning to get elastic abilities, and knowing him, use them to full lethal capacity. Plus, Robotnik's most advanced inventions, despite his admittedly superior scientific intellect, rarely worked perfectly the first time he used them, meaning he would use test subjects first, and many might not survive the first tries. Sally's theory was confirmed when she noticed a short robot (used, obviously, for maintenance and cleaning purposes) taking some suits out of a trunk; the suits were similar to the one she found at the other factory before gaining her powers, just with a different color scheme (gray and purple), and since they were many, it was obvious Robotnik planned to dress up his test subjects with them before experimenting with the elasticity ray.

"Okay, enough chatting. Now, I have to decide which one of you will participate in my first experiment." Robotnik grinned evilly while looking at every wolf, and stopping in front of Sally. "Mmm... you're kinda familiar... I remember those eyes and that hateful glare from some place... Oh, well, you'll be next. First, I think the wolf leaders' daughter will be a best first option."

Robotnik pointed at Maria and then nodded at his robots. Soon, the guard-bot brought her to the maintenance robots, that jumped over her and, in a matter of seconds, dressed her on with one of the test suits. Maria was tempted to fight them at that moment, but right then she was just glad for having a not-about-to-be-destroyed outfit.

"Get your hands away from our daughter, you maniac!" Lobo practically roared, almost breaking free from the net. Lupe had an equally angry expression, and then nodded at Sally, who replied with a nod and then went back to growling at Robotnik, who noticed this and gave Sally his full attention again.

"You are angry with me, Little One? Maybe, because I chose the other girl to be the first test subject? Don't worry..." Robotnik eyed her mockingly. "You can be the next one."

"Sorry, but I think we both know I'm already a successful result." Sally then morphed her arms into giant blades, cutting free from the net.

"IT'S YOU!" Robotnik jumped back, falling on his butt, when recognizing the captive. "SWAT BOTS, SEIZE HER!"

Moving at top speed, Sally used her blades to destroy the robots holding the wolves; to avoid possibly hurting her allies, Sally focused on the robots' heads and arms, destroying them without making enough damage to make them explode (as it usually happened with Robotnik's creations) yet damaging them enough to release the captives. Soon, all the wolves were free again, and helping Sally fight the coming Swat Bots; Lupe was the only one not fighting at the moment since she dashed to help Maria, who was already tied up to Robotnik's experimentation table. Luckily for all the wolves, since the robots had just captured them some minutes ago, they still carried all their weaponry, so they weren't defenseless against the superior firepower, especially with Sally helping them.

Lupe used her short sword on Maria's restrains, but she could only cut one (releasing Maria's right arm) because another robot shot a laser at her arm; Lupe dodged the attack, but it still hit her sword with enough force to send it away from her. Lupe then cartwheeled away to avoid the robot's continuous attack and keep it away from Maria, but now the wolf leader was the only non-armed warrior; she still had the explosive charge, of course, but wouldn't dare using it so close to her daughter.

Sally, after beating up two robots with giant-sized fists, noticed Lupe was in trouble so got into 'battle suit mode', the elastic princess jumping over Lupe and instantaneously morphing into a suit.

"Hah, that's your main power, Princess? Giving the wolf a new suit? What a waste of abilities..." Robotnik stopped laughing when Sally changed from a normal suit to a battle one, giving Lupe the appearance of a futuristic gladiatrix.

"Now, let's show Robotnik what we can do, Sally." Lupe grinned as the suit's portions covering her arms morphed into giant techno-looking axes. "Great; these'll do nicely."

Lupe then jumped more than 5 times higher than her normal limit, thanks to the combination of enhanced strength and super elasticity provided by Sally's body, and then made a diving attack while spinning at high speed, hitting more than a dozen robots while blocking the attacks.

Robotnik was so amazed (and worried) about this, that he didn't notice when Maria, using her free arm, managed to release herself from the rest of her restrains. Then, looking at the Elasticity Ray, and realizing everyone was too busy fighting, knew it was up to her to destroy the invention; luckily, she still had her own explosive charge, so she had a way to destroy it completely in an instant.

Maria jumped over the invention and placed the explosive right on, she thought, the main power cell, knowing by previous experiences that an explosion here would cause the most damage and the invention, most probably, would be beyond any repairing chance. The wolf then set the explosive's timer to 1 minute, so she could have time to take cover and to warn her companions while still being too little time for Robotnik to remove or deactivate the explosive in case of spotting it... as it actually happened.

Robotnik, after looking at the Lupe-Sally fused force using something resembling a huge army blade to literally cut his robots in perfect halves, started looking around for a weapon or invention he could use get the upper hand again. However, when doing this, what he found was Maria setting the explosive.

"Someone, anyone, get that girl now!" Robotnik hoped any of his still functional robots could hear his order. A Swat Bot was close enough to hear its creator, and charged at Maria, aiming at her with a laser gun; Maria dodged the shot, but it hit the explosive charge.

**BOOOOM!**

The whole room got silent after the powerful explosion; Sally, Lupe and Lobo got particularly scared, knowing Maria was very close to the explosion's site (they didn't know she was trying to destroy it at the moment), so, while Lupe and Sally covered Lobo's back, Maria's father dashed to help her.

"You, Mutt, your daughter ruined my..." Robotnik couldn't finish the sentence because the muscular wolf grabbed him by the collar and, in an impressive display of strength, lifted the mad scientist over his head and then threw Robotnik several feet away, the villain making a very painful crash landing over the remains of some of his destroyed robots.

"Maria, it's me, your father! Where are you?" Lobo got back to the important business at hand, trying to find Maria among the explosion's smoke and the invention's debris. He finally found her hand under a large piece of equipment and started lifting the machine's remains... and almost dropped it in surprise, when realizing the arm was as big and thin as a cable; when Lobo recovered from the initial shock, he followed the arm around 20 feet, removing more debris on his way, until finally finding Maria behind a control panel, where the explosion's force sent her. Lobo then noticed that the rest of her body was pretty much like her arm, elongated several feet beyond her natural limits; it was particularly impressive with her neck, that was rolled around her other arm. When checking her up, Lobo sighed in relief when noticing she was still breathing; he then tried to make her react (after unrolling the neck, just in case), and see if she could recover her shape when conscious, the male wolf knowing by now that, obviously, she was affected by the Ray's energy, and hoping that if she was awake, Maria could gain control over her condition, like Sally did.

"Nnnngh... Father?" Maria finally opened her eyes, and, as Lobo expected, the sudden muscular contraction made her limbs recover their natural length.

"Yes, Maria; you destroyed Robotnik's invention, right?" Lobo paused, waiting for Maria to nod in reply. "Well done, Maria. Now, let's get out of here... and guess now it's time for the rest of us to give Robotnik the rest of our gifts."

Lobo carried Maria, something she normally would object when in public, but since she had just survived a massive explosion, the female thought it was a very reasonable excuse to be seen in a vulnerable state.

"Sally, Lupe, Maria is fine!" Lobo shouted, not telling anyone about Maria's powers at the moment, thinking it wasn't important at the moment... but then, when a half-damaged Swat Bot charged at him and Maria, the young wolf reacted by throwing a kick at it; the result was a giant foot being literally shot against the robot and sending it the other side of the room.

The other wolves, and Sally (still as Lupe's battle suit) gasped at this; Maria, very surprised herself, stared at her leg, that was now as long as her dad's full body, and her foot, as big as Robotnik's belly.

"Oh... and she also got Elasticity... impressive uh?" Lobo chuckled while getting a nervous smile. "Uh, Maria, one moment ago, you had your whole body stretched like that... you can get your leg and foot back to normal if you concentrate. Now... as your pack's leader, I command you to get a normal leg."

Maria, by force of habit and training, that always made her obey her leaders' orders, specially in the middle of a battle, didn't even hesitate to change her leg and foot back to normal length. Lobo was glad that he was both her father and leader, and that Maria was a very disciplined warrior, something that came handy to help her keep and regain control under extreme circumstances.

Sally stretched her neck a bit to get a better sight of the whole situation, and noticed Robotnik was regaining conscience after Lobo's attack; luckily, he wasn't aware of Maria's abilities, meaning he wouldn't go after her, at least for the time being. The princess then saw several other robots approaching.

"We'd better check that out later. Now, it's time to leave." Sally suggested/commented Lupe.

"True that." Lupe then got back her commanding tone." Everyone, drop your charges around, with just 20 seconds to spare; Sally and I will provide a way out!"

As Lupe talked, the other wolves obeyed and set up the charges' timers, while Sally morphed her body into a bulkier form, providing Lupe with even greater strength. The wolf leader then dashed at the closest wall and morphed the suit's fists, making them gigantic sized, and punched her way out of the building. The other wolves followed after her and Sally, and, as Lupe ordered them, they threw their charges around in their way out. Twenty seconds later, all the charges started exploding, and due to the building still being vulnerable (being just half made and all), especially with all the damage it received from this battle and the ray's destruction, the whole construction started collapsing. Robotnik, too injured to move away by himself, had to order his robots to stop the chase and save him instead, the scientist barely making out of the building before it fell on top of him.

"I'm starting to hate that princess as much as I hate THAT HEDGEHOG! And those wolves aren't far behind!"

The wolves didn't hear Robotnik's shouting in anger over the falling building's noises. Instead, they hurried up to get away, knowing their mission was complete, yet still worried about Maria's condition. Even if the elasticity powers didn't seem to affect Sally's health, and provided nothing but advantages, she got them from a focused, functional blast from the previous ray, while Maria got affected by a massive explosion from an experimental version.

"Sally, you think you can..." Lupe got interrupted by Sally, who was now getting back to her normal shape.

"... get Maria with me so Nicole, Tails and myself can give her a complete check-up?" Sally said to a nodding Lupe.

"Please and thank you." Lupe sighed in partial relief. "But not today... I think we all need a good night of rest after this."

Sally sighed and nodded at this, while she and Lupe turned back to see Maria, still carried by Lobo, and watching her own hands growing the size of a baseball's glove.


	9. The Four Sides of Maria Wolf

Chapter 9 - The Four Sides of Maria Wolf

When the wolves and Sally returned to the village, first thing Lupe did was ordering her daughter to go home and wait for the medic; while Lupe ordered another warrior to get said medic, Sally went with Maria to start a little checkup.

"Okay, Maria, first... how does your body feel; harder than usual, or as if you were made of something lighter than air?" Sally asked the young wolf as they both sat on Maria's bed. Sally had felt like this at times, when adopting some shapes, so it was a good start point.

"I... I don't think I can describe it. When... my father woke me up at the lab... I felt so heavy and tired... then again, maybe that was just a consequence of the explosion's force. But, after I kicked that robot away, I felt mostly normal, except for that sudden weight on my leg and foot I used for the kick. And now... I only feel very tired, but no real difference." Maria admitted while looking at her hands. A moment later, she made another conscious effort to shapeshift, and her hands grew twice their normal size. "And this feels so weird... I have no way to describe it."

"Yes, I know the feeling." Sally comforted her and motioned Maria to change her hands back to normal. "When I first got the powers, I had no time to get used to these sensations because we were in the middle of a battle, and I had no time to think about it, just... to fight and use these abilities as instinct and fighting experience guided me; but later, when I finally got the time to actually feel how much my body had changed... I admit it, I was as excited as I was scared." Sally smiled a bit before looking back at Maria. "In your case, it was definitely more traumatic since you got the powers in a far more violent way than I did, plus you didn't get to fight immediately after getting them, unless you consider that kick to the robot as part of a fight, so you hadn't stopped thinking about what happened to you."

"I kinda expect this to be some sort of weird dream, but then I remember that I'm awake and this is real..." Maria then got a thoughtful expression. "You think Sonic felt this way the first time he found out he could outrun basically anything in the world?"

"I hadn't asked him." Sally realized Maria had a very valid question; even if her abilities were different from Sonic's, they were still super powers, and they both weren't born with them but gained their powers on relatively recent times. "Then again, this is Sonic we're talking about; he might be very hyperactive and impatient when it comes to action, but the rest of the time he's one of the most relaxed, easy-going guys I've ever met, so it's hard to tell if becoming that fast made him a thoughtful hedghehog, at least for some time. Knowing him, he probably just became super happy for having an ability that would help him fight, run, and eat chili dogs faster than anyone in the planet."

Sally and Maria shared a good natured laugh, the princess happy that the wolf was now a bit more relaxed. The medic arrived a few moments later, with Lupe and Lobo behind him. The doctor gave Maria a complete check up and, at least when it came to her vitals, she was as healthy and normal as usual; of course, even the doctor admitted his resources were kinda limited when it came to analyzing genetic-level, meta-abilities granting changes in a Moebian wolf's physiology; Sally kindly translated this scientific explanation as 'when it comes to super powers, call someone else' so Maria and her parents would know what the doctor was talking about.

"Guess this is the most we can do for tonight." Lupe sighed and then looked back at her daughter. "We'll have dinner now, and then we're all going to bed so we can take you with the Freedom Fighters first thing in the morning."

"Good idea, Mother. I really feel as if have a hole in my stomach right now." Maria said and then noticed everyone was staring at her. When she looked down, Maria noticed she now, literally, had a hole in her stomach, and a nasty headache product of frustration.

"Okay... first lesson, Maria... be careful with what you say; sometimes, your body will take your words very literally." Sally explained the young wolf, who sighed, nodded, and concentrated to close the hole.

"I really need a snack now... and after that, I'm taking a..." Maria paused. "I'm going to sleep. I don't wanna risk breaking in two if I say I'm taking a break."

A while later, Maria finally got herself to sleep; despite being so tired after the whole day's ordeals, it was hard for her to finally get to sleep due to her many concerns and personal doubts about her new condition. Even in her dreams, she couldn't find peace, imagining herself losing control of her elasticity and not being able to turn back to normal.

The dreams soon became even more vivid and realistic. At one point of her dream, Maria saw herself in a large, deserted area, with nobody else around in what seemed to be miles and miles of dead, dry land.

"Hello?" Dream Maria started yelling while looking around. "Anyone there? Mother? Father? I'll even take Marcus, if he's the only one available! Really, nobody's here? Please, I don't wanna be alone!"

"You're not alone."

Dream Maria turned to find herself face to face with... herself. Another wolf, looking exactly like her, was smirking at Maria while standing just a few feet away from her. Dream Maria started approaching her when noticing a second duplicate had appeared right next to her. When Dream Maria fully turned at her, she felt someone touching her back, and jumped, realizing she had bumped into another duplicate. Dream Maria looked at the trio and before saying anything else, she heard another duplicate, moving from behind the other ones, talking to her.

"You don't need anyone, Maria. You have yourself. And yourself. And yourself. And, of course, yourself."

Dream Maria wanted to talk but found her voice gone, and then, in a sudden, her whole body started contorting violently while her chest seemed to inflate and about to explode, as the 4 duplicates approached her, slow and silently.

Back in the real world, the real Maria's body was experiencing the same changes as her dream self. However, unlike the dream world, Maria wasn't completely alone here, and despite not yelling or making other sounds with her mouth, her violent contortions and wild stretching were hitting the walls and furniture of her room, making enough noise to wake up her parents.

"Maria? Maria, what's wrong?" Lobo, entering the room, got a concerned tone while trying to approach his daughter without getting hit by the quick, contorting, stretching limbs.

"We need Sally!" Lupe said after a few seconds, and when Marcus finally appeared, the noise waking him up as well, Lupe sent him to the tent where Sally was staying.

After a few seconds, Maria seemed to calm down, as her limbs returned to a normal size, but her chest and belly were still inflating like a giant balloon. When her parents finally got close enough to notice she had been sleeping the whole time...

**KA-BLAM!**

The explosion was heard all over the village; when Lupe and Lobo recovered from the stunning noise, they paled when realizing their daughter was gone and only remained as large rubber-like spots. Before the parents could start wailing at the loss of their daughter, however, the remains started attacking themselves, forming a body... or more precisely, four bodies. Lupe and Lobo watched in awe as the four unidentifiable bodies finally got a distinctive shape and color; Maria's.

"M-Maria? Sweetheart, are you..." Lupe's voice made the 4 bodies to react, opening their eyes wide and getting predatory stances. Then, before Lupe or Lobo had any time to do a thing, the foursome morphed into balls and started bouncing on the walls, ceiling and floor until they got out of the room; two by the window, one by the door, and the last one making her own exit by making a hole in the ceiling.

Sally, who had finally arrived at the place, with Marcus behind her, gasped at the sight of the 4 rubber balls exiting Lupe and Lobo's home, and almost shocked when the balls morphed back into their canine shapes. The foursome then started jumping around and over the villagers (obviously, they had heard the explosion and were now trying to find out what happened) and their homes, and at times they morphed into different shapes without retaining one for more than a few seconds.

"Okay, this can't be good..." Sally finally reacted and morphed her hands into a shield, just in time to protect a wolf that was about to be hit by an out of control rubber disc.

When Lupe and Lobo exited the house, and with the help of moonlight and the other houses' lights, they finally noticed a detail they missed in the darkness of Maria's bedroom; all the 'Marias' had differently colored outfits; one was Red and Black, another was Red and White, one was Blue and Black and the last was Blue and White. Those differences aside, they all behaved and looked exactly the same.

"Quick, we must capture them before they get hurt or they hurt someone else." Lupe said to her husband. Lobo nodded and addressed Sally and the other wolves.

"Try to catch them without hurting them, but be careful and don't expose yourselves!" Everyone nodded at Lobo's words. Sally, having the same powers, knew for sure that she would run the least risk while having the best chances to capture the Marias.

Sally morphed into her ball shape to bounce after one of the Marias while the rest of the wolves tried to surround the others. Lupe and Lobo separated so they could try to speak to one Maria at a time and see if the clones recognized them and calmed down.

This was easier said than done. Once Sally finally tackled the clone she was chasing (the one with a red and black uniform), the wolf snapped at her and got a battle stance, immediately replying with a giant double fist attack that Sally barely dodged. The princess then morphed her body into her muscular form to fight the clone but the wolf eluded her with a big leap. Even if Sally had the more experience with these abilities, Maria was a trained wolf warrior and obviously these clones, even if feral, still had her fighting skills, and these got incredibly enhanced by the elastic powers.

Lobo and a dozen warrior finally managed to corner the clone in white and blue. This one had stopped jumping around already and now seemed to be more curious than anxious, staring at the other wolves yet still ready to escaped if considering it necessary.

"Maria... it's me. Your Father. Please, if you're still in there, speak to me." Lobo talked in a firm yet obviously caring tone. His words seemed to affect this particular clone, as she elongated her neck in order to get her head and nose closer to Lobo, and sniff him.

Meanwhile, Lupe and some other warriors managed to chase another clone inside a house that, Lupe realized, was the village's library. Lupe made the warriors surround the building to capture the Maria if she escaped again while the wolf leader would enter and try reasoning with her. Lupe entered with extreme caution, but dropped due to the surprise of finding this clone, the one dressed in red and white, not trying to fight or hide, but grabbing some books and started reading them, her eyes moving in different directions, like a chameleon's, in order to read several pages at once. Lupe just stood there, realizing this clone wasn't going anywhere, and right now she was calm and harmless, so the wolf leader kept her place, allowing her daughter (or what she hoped was still her daughter) to continue with her reading.

The last clone, dressed in blue and black, was now having fun at the other warriors' expense, using her powers to keep herself at a distance, and distracting the male ones with flirty looks and even blowing some kisses at them. This was especially surprising and stunning to the wolves since they knew the real Maria would never act this way.

This clone's fun, finally, was interrupted by two of her 'sisters', the Red/White and the Blue/White, appearing out of nowhere and using their own powers to tie themselves around the flirty one, similar to 2 snakes catching a third one. Lupe and Lobo joined the scene almost immediately.

"You got one to reason?" Lobo asked his wife as they both watched the elastic struggle.

"Actually, I just allowed her to regain her reason; she did it by reading, believe it or not." Lupe replied, making Lobo to chuckle a bit.

"The other sniffed me and then called me 'Father' before getting me into a hug. She actually acted like Maria when she was a cub."

As Lobo said, the White/Blue Maria was now talking in a sweet, almost child-like tone to her flirty sister, trying to calm her down, while the third clone used a more educated, sophisticated tone.

"Sister, please, you're scaring everyone. Mother and Father are worried about us." The Kind one said, looking at her troublesome sister face to face and giving her a puppy eyed look that actually made the troublesome to start struggling.

"In deed. We understand you're just acting by instinct, as we did until a few moments ago, but if we could regain our rational mind, you are perfectly capable as well." The other didn't just talk like someone wiser beyond her years, but she really was as convincing as a smart yet nice person would be.

The two 'in control' Marias started unwrapping themselves from the third one's body, and this Maria started getting a calmer expression. After a few moments, she surprised everyone when she stretched her arms again, but this time it was for hugging her sisters.

"Aw, thank you, Gals! I needed some girl chat... heh, talk about a wild party we organized." This Maria's tone was very casual and light, but the voice's sound was surprisingly attractive, and in fact reminded Lupe and Lobo of Rouge The Bat when she was being seductive.

"Okay... you're gonna behave now?" Lupe talked to the three Marias.

"I'll do, Mother." The Wise one nodded at the wolf leader. The Kind Maria just nodded, keeping respectful silence, while the one with the flirty voice grinned and nodded as well.

"But you have to ask our other sister too." The Flirty one commented and, in a perfect cue, everyone turned when hearing an extremely loud noise.

"Battle sounds." Lobo frowned. "We better go and help Sally before one or both of them gets injured."

As Lobo said, Sally and the last clone were still in a very intense fight. Now that the aggressive wolf had seen how Sally used her powers, she was mimicking some of the princess' shapes, including the mallet and lasso arms, and now was thinking clearly enough to try the most dangerous shapes, like the mace and the giant blade. Sally had to use a combination of her muscular form and the agility of her ninja shape (alternating between both forms constantly) to keep the wolf out of balance and counter the attacks without severely injuring her and avoiding a beating herself.

"Time to get sneaky." Sally charged at the clone, who was about to hit her with giant fists with spiked knuckles, and then, at the last moment, changed into her semi-liquid form, covering the clone, and then solidified herself, at least partially, restraining the clone's moves.

Before Sally could start trying to talk to the wolf and calm her down, now that she wasn't moving that much (yet still struggling), the rest of the wolves arrived, including the other 3 clones. The Marias aided Sally, all of them stretching their arms to contribute at holding their sister, while talking to the still furious one.

"Please, Sister, you're destroying our home, and the one you're fighting is our friend. She only wants to help you. Stop fighting and listen to us." Kind Maria talked to the Furious one, while Wise motioned Flirty to stay silent; being the, obviously, smartest of the bunch, this Maria realized that Kind's voice and attitude were the best options to calm down the enraged sister without risking confusing and angering her again if listening to many voices at once.

Furious Maria looked at her sisters, focusing on the Kind one when she placed her face in front of her own, and, slowly, started cooling down. The other sisters realized it and stopped holding her, standing in front of their sister in non aggressive stances; Sally still kept a firm yet not that hard hold on this clone, just in case. When Furious looked at her parents moving next to her sisters, both of them showing no signs of aggression, and then at Sally, who wasn't giving her an angry or challenging face despite still holding her, this clone finally calmed down completely.

"You can release me now, Princess. I'm not gonna fight you... unless you wanna spar later." This clone's voice was strong and firm yet with an obvious sarcastic tone. Sally, recognizing this kind of voice and tone, hearing it many times in the past when Knuckles was in a particularly good mood, finally released the clone, who then looked at her parents and got a different attitude; basically, the same expression and body language of a tough kid who has to apologize to her parents.

"Uh... sorry about that... Guess I went a bit..."

"Crazy? Destructive? Born to be wild?" Flirty grinned at her sister, everyone realizing instantly that this particular clone seemed to have the most active sense of humor of the foursome.

"Fine, I caused a lot of trouble, but in my defense, we all went crazy." Furious groaned, and the other clones nodded at this.

"First, we'll start rebuilding whatever you four damaged..." Lupe paused when looking at Kind and Wise. "Okay, what some of you damaged, and then we'll work on the little detail of finding out why suddenly I got quadruplets... or whatever word describes when you have 4 kids at once."

"I think you used the correct term, Mother." Wise nodded at Lupe while Sally's scientific mind started running scenarios that might explain this situation.

Later, when most of the most extensive damage was undone (or at least, enough to make those buildings habitable again), Lupe went with the foursome to Sally's room while Lobo supervised the rest of the repairing. Sally contacted Nicole via a communicator, and they started discussing theories and hypothesis.

During the repairs, the clones decided to use their Shape - shifting powers to help the other wolves, and when doing this, they actually started morphing their clothing, subconsciously giving themselves an individuality sense beyond their suits' colors. The formerly Furious clone, now addressing herself as Courage, ended with a suit that looked perfect for a professional wrestler, including boots and a bandana, plus she had morphed her body to appear a bit taller and more muscular than her sisters; even if they could all morph like this, it seemed Courage could hold the Amazonian build much better than the others. The Wise one used a suit that somehow resembled her mother's, but added a pair of glasses; despite having perfect eyesight, she felt comfortable with them and actually added a sense of maturity and intelligence to her looks. The Kind one, being a bit more shy and feminine than the others, decided to go for a long dress, with gloves covering up to her elbows and wearing a belt, copying one from a fairy tale the original Maria had read many years ago. Finally, the Flirty one, who decided to call herself Heart, at first tried copying Rouge's outfit, but realizing she didn't have the body for that, and using her powers to get it would probably give her parents a heart attack, went for a tight, sexy looking suit yet still conserving her normal shape; also, due to her sense of humor and wanting to contribute with her sisters' new looks and names, she suggested Kind to change her name to Soul, something her sister accepted. The foursome stood around Sally and their mother while everybody heard at Nicole and the Princess talking.

"Considering that this ray gives your body's cells an increased resistance and reproduction rate, it's actually very possible that you, Sally, can actually regrow a lost limb if, by any chance, and let's hope it never happens, it occurs. This incident would be a more extreme version of cellular replication." Nicole pointed out.

"So, basically, Maria developed new bodies like I would develop a new arm in the event of losing it." Sally commented. "And since she created 4 bodies, she needed her whole body mass in order to make them exactly like her. Otherwise, we'd have different sized clones."

"But why they all have different personalities?" Lupe asked.

"Because of Maria, subconsciously, trying to control each of her separated forms, she divided her psyche into four parts; it's not to say that, for example, Courage can't be nice, but her niceness level isn't the same as Soul. Each clone has a predominant characteristic, representing Maria's Body, Mind, Heart, and Soul, with all of them having a little bit of the others' personalities... that would explain why none of them is villainous or pure aggression... or that Heart, Wise and Soul can still fight even if Courage is obviously the warrior one of the foursome." Sally explained.

"Exactly, Sally." Nicole continued. "They all have a little bit of Maria's feelings, sentience and conscience. However, since Maria did this entirely by accident, and triggered by a subconscious event, most probably a nightmare, she had little sentient control over them during the cloning process. That would explain why they were so difficult to handle when first created; they acted like normal wild animals finding themselves in a confusing environment."

"A very precise and accurate idea." Wise finally spoke again. "And our individuality showed up after a few minutes; that explains why Soul was the less violent and why Father could control her with relative ease, and why I subconsciously searched for a knowledge source in a controlled, quiet environment that helped me self-control."

"Mhmm... and Courage and I needed to be calmed down because we were running wild and high, each one in her own style, because that's how our personalities work without a conscience to give us some control." Heart shared a grin with her muscular sister.

"Thanks again for calming us, Sis." Courage playfully elbowed Soul's side, not hard enough to hurt her, thanks to the muscular wolf now controlling her strength a lot better than before.

"You're most welcome, Dear Sister." Soul replied with her cute, nice smile. It was obvious that she had a calming effect not just on her sisters but in everyone around her, due to her having Maria's niceness and empathy enhanced to the max.

"All this is very interesting... but it means that now we have 4 Marias... and the original one is gone?" Lupe couldn't help but show her concern. Even if these four clones were basically her daughter, she still worried about the possibility of not having her original, complete Maria back.

"Well... when I turn myself into my liquid form, I'm in control of practically all of my cells." Sally got a thoughtful expression. "And no matter how disperse they are, I still can call them back to my original body with little problem."

"I see what you're about to propose, Sally," Nicole talked while making some calculations, "and your plan is a very factible one. If all the clones change into a semi-liquid state, or close enough, they can probably fuse back into one being and restore the original Maria."

"But that would mean we'd be gone for good, isn't it?" Courage frowned. "I will do anything necessary to bring back our original self, especially for Mother and Father's sake, but it doesn't mean I like the idea."

"I concur with you, Sister." Wise nodded at the muscular wolf. "However... since our original self can surely morph into the semi-liquid, fluid shape as well, and I know she will be able to do it if we can accomplish it as well, maybe she can divide herself again, this time on purpose, in order to bring us back at will."

"And being a sentient decision, you four will not lose control again." Sally added. "At least in theory."

Once everyone agreed on this plan, Sally started teaching the foursome how to transform into the fluid shape; Heart and Wise got it almost instantly, and in fact Heart enjoyed it a lot, but Courage, used by now to a strong, big self, and Soul, being the shiest of the group, even when it came to using her powers, took a while to achieve their sisters' level of control.

Finally, after hours of practice, Sally decided the foursome were ready to try the fusion.

"Nobody can say we're not close." Heart joked while she and her sisters formed a circle, holding hands and getting ready to fuse. Sally stayed out of the circle to direct them, while Lupe and Lobo watched from a short distance.

"Now, girls, we're ready. Like we practiced." Sally nodded at the foursome, the young wolves nodding at her before smiling at their parents, and then starting the transformation to fluid. Even if Wise and Heart could do this almost instantly, they kept up with their sisters' slower pace in order to achieve perfect coordination.

Soon, the four wolves were a huge, moving mass of liquid plastic, and after a minute or so, they started re-shaping themselves, but this time as an unique, only body. Then, as if she was never gone, the original Maria, wearing her original purple and gray costume, was standing in the middle of the room.

"Whoa... that was intense." Maria, in her normal voice, rubbed the sides of her head. Lupe and Lobo, no longer holding back, got her in a tight embrace.

"Welcome back, Daughter." Lupe said in Maria's ear.

"You gave us a big scare." Lobo said in her other ear.

"Sorry... guess now I have to be more careful about my wishes; I always wanted to have sisters." Maria smiled at them before returning the hug by stretching her entire body and wrapped her elongated arms around her parents.

Sally smiled at the scene. Even if Maria seemed to be fine, she and Nicole, in agreement with Lupe and Lobo, knew they'd later need to give her an extensive check-up. Also, the foursome wouldn't appear on scene again until Maria was in more control of her powers, so she wouldn't produce wild clones again and limit them to the already viable four personalities.


	10. An Elastic Master and her Apprentice

Chapter 10 - An Elastic Master and her Apprentice

The next couple of days were quite busy for everyone. After the incident with Maria's accidental cloning, Lupe and Lobo no longer felt okay with their daughter going to Knothole for her training and physical examination, since both parents wanted to be there in case she had a similar problem again, and being the wolves' leaders, this wasn't possible, as there should always be at least one leader at the village at all times except for emergencies that required them both out.

The solution was simple, yet very laborious; to install a temporary laboratory and training area at the wolves' village. Once Sally contacted the other Freedom Fighters, Tails suggested this idea, and everyone agreed, but it took several trips from Knothole to the wolves' village in order to transport the necessary material. Tails and Rotor, when not using the Tornado X to transport the most delicate, hardest to replace components, were either working on the installing or going to Robotnik's destroyed base to salvage some raw materials that were still useful, including the remains of the robots the wolves and Sally had previously battled and some of the steel and circuits Robotnik had there in order to build or repair his creations. Sonic, Knuckles, Bunnie and Sally carried most of the heaviest materials, sometimes from very long distances; even with Sonic's speed, the hedgehog could only carry a limited weight, so he usually only carried technological equipment rather than construction materials.

Maria was pretty much stunned and amazed at how fast the Freedom Fighters were working in order to have everything ready as soon as possible, even instructing the wolves so they could help with the construction (a few wolves, in fact, soon became enough tech-wise to make basic repairs and install some delicate equipment); in the meantime, Nicole, via Sally's communication devices, continued running tests on Maria, to get sure her condition was still stable; of course, it was a very basic analysis, since the more complete tests would need to wait until the lab was ready.

Finally, the construction was finished. The facility was basically a moderate sized dome on the village's outside, with enough scanners and lab equipment inside to monitor Maria with great precision plus a small obstacles course for Maria to practice her abilities in a controlled environment before mastering them enough to do on the outside.

"Okay, Maria," Sally talked to the young wolf as they both entered the dome, "since I already have a good amount of experience at using my abilities, I'll be the one teaching you. However, I want you to develop your own creativity as well, and even if you at first only copy whatever I do, I expect you to come with your own transformations and uses for your elasticity."

"Very well, Princess. And I really appreciate all this effort." Maria replied with a honest smile as they went to the training area of the dome. Sonic, Tails, Rotor and Nicole were looking at them, with the sentient computer and the little fox monitoring both Sally and Maria's vitals at all times; Lupe, Lobo, Marcus, Athena and Aerial soon joined them.

"First, we'll start with a basic exercise." Sally said, placing herself in front of Maria before making both her arms as thick as logs.

Maria touched Sally's arms, realizing she didn't just inflate them but increased their density as well. The young wolf took a deep breath and started focusing on her arms; this was way harder than just stretching her limbs, but after a minute or so, her arms were almost as thick as Sally's.

"Good. Now, relax your arms." Sally instructed Maria, and both females returned their limbs to normal at the same time. "Let's try the legs now."

Sally made Maria do this 'hardening' exercise several times with practically all her body's parts, including her tail and hairdo. Before moving to the most complex shape-shifting, Sally wanted to be sure Maria's body could handle the density and size changes. It wouldn't help a lot if Maria could make herself appear stronger if she actually only had her normal level of strength in case she only inflated her muscles without hardening them.

Once Sally was satisfied with this warming up, the princess suggested starting the more complex shape shifting. First, different body types; Sally turned into her muscular self, and instructed Maria to do the same; after some effort and corrections, Maria's body looked exactly like her Courage self (without the color and clothing change, of course).

"Good. Now, let's see if you have strengthened your muscles the right way." Sally then went to another section of the training room and returned carrying a large steel weight; it probably was more than 800 pounds.

Maria, after pushing a bit, found herself moving the weight, and then, to everyone's surprise, started lifting it without any effort.

"What happened? A moment ago, I barely could move this." Maria asked in amazement while holding the weight over her head, using only one hand.

"That's because you realized you needed more strength to move the weight, and, by instinct, you made your body much harder." Sally explained while everyone looked in awe.

"Whoa." Marcus groaned. "Great; now, even if I someday grow up to Dad's size, Maria will always be the stronger one."

"Resignation and patience, Son." Lobo chuckled at Marcus' reaction without missing sight of Sally's lessons. The princess had made Maria to drop the weight to try another form.

Sonic almost started drooling when Sally turned into her super sexy form. Lupe and Lobo got surprised at this but also a bit uncomfortable, not knowing if they'd like to see their daughter looking like this.

Fortunately, Maria and Sally expected this, so the princess instructed Maria to not overdo the change; her parents had enough trying to get used to the overly flirty Heart Maria. The young wolf, however, got overly excited about making this change, and ended with an hourglass figure that would be the envy of Rouge... and then, made her breasts and legs even bigger and firmer.

Lobo and Lupe groaned at this, while Rotor tried his best to hold back a wolf whistle (ah, the irony) and Tails almost got a nose bleed; Maria's sisters gave her a thumbs up, and Marcus was now covering his eyes while moving behind his dad, repeating 'She's my sister, she's my sister' over and over again.

"Heh, guess I'm not the only one who gets impressed with these changes." Sonic grinned, enjoying both Sally's transformation and everyone's reaction to Maria's.

"Maria... I know you must be enjoying this..." Lobo talked back to his daughter. 'But, can you make it a bit less... sensual?"

"Oh... okay, Dad." Maria sighed while reducing her breasts and general size a little bit; she still looked like a very attractive, well developed female wolf, but not to the point of traumatizing her brother.

"I'm still making my bust as big as yours when my parents aren't around." Maria, in a whisper, said to Sally, the princess chuckling a bit and hoping Lupe and Lobo weren't hearing. Sure, at 18 years old, Maria was practically an adult by now, but her parents would always see her as their little girl, and they were already getting used to the fact Maria was now an elasticity powered female to also worry about her being seen as a juicy piece of meat by every male on Mobius.

"Now, Maria, let's work with other body types. I think these two will be the ones you would use the most in real situations; muscular for fighting, and seductive to distract or manipulate an opponent, but it doesn't hurt to master the other body types and it will prepare you for the next lessons." Sally said before changing into a very obese rodent; to Sonic, she still looked very cute, but other males would certainly get overly surprised by this change.

Maria nodded and morphed into a very obese version of herself. Satisfied by this, Sally showed her how to turn short and obese, big and obese (in this shape, she looked like a sumo wrestler), big and lean (both Sally and Maria looked like basketball players when using this form), short and lean, average non-athletic, and so.

"Okay, you already know how to shape your body into normal body types. Now, we'll practice shaping and stretching your body beyond normal body limits." While saying this, Sally stretched her neck and then circled around Maria. The young wolf nodded and did as her mentor; the main problem with this trick was getting used to the vertigo and the sensation of, literally, her head leaving her body behind.

Sally then showed her how to stretch her arms, hands, legs and tail before doing the same with the torso. After around one hour of practice, Maria was able to stretch practically all her body at once, practically touching 5 different sides of the dome at the same time, with her head, both hands, one foot and her tail, while using the other leg and foot (still stretched but touching the floor) for balance.

"New rule, Sis." Marcus interrupted the session. "No using your powers when we play Twister."

"I can't make promises." Maria chuckled at this before returning to normal.

"Perfect. Now, we'll practice shape-shifting your whole body into non-conventional shapes." Sally morphed herself into a ball. "Your clones already did this by instinct, but now I want you to do it on purpose."

Maria, with some effort, adopted the ball shape. Then, Sally started rolling and bouncing, motioning Maria to do the same. The young wolf soon dominated the moves, and even bounced aside her family; Marcus and the girls joined the fun by chasing after her while Lupe and Lobo watched in awe how their daughter passed over and behind them during the chase.

The next hour was pretty much the same, with Maria learning to turn into a cube, a pyramid, a flat rubber carpet and so. Sally explained her that these shapes would later come handy when turning into weaponry, outfits or shields.

"Now, we'll start working with the most advanced shape-shifting." Sally explained while morphing her hands into large claws, resembling a bird of prey's. "Your opponents will be quite surprised if they fight you as a wolf and then, all of a sudden, you attack them with a reptile tail, eagle's claws or porcupine quills."

Maria was particularly excited about this lesson. After learning how to change her paws, Maria learned how to grow new animal features, like ram's horns, bird's wings, and, one of the shapes she enjoyed the most, a fish's tail, fusing both her legs and making herself look like a mermaid; to make the change more realistic, she even morphed her clothing to look like a Purple Tank with a gray seashell bikini - top and made her hair a lot longer and changing its texture to resemble a mermaid's picture she had seen before, including some big bangs.

"How do I look?" Maria asked everyone.

"Under the sea... under the sea..." Marcus and Rotor started singing, getting good natured chuckles from everyone.

"Good one, guys." Sally grinned at this before looking back at Maria. "And yes, it's a very good change. Not exactly useful on land, but it will be great on water. Now, change back to normal so we can work on land animals."

Maria obeyed Sally and then saw the rodent change into a large felidae warrior; Sally even added some stripes, making herself look like a Mobian tigress.

"As a wolf warrior, you're familiar with a felidae's looks, so it's an image you already have in your mind and therefore you can morph into it more easily." Sally explained the wolf, who, if not knowing the truth, wouldn't find any difference between Sally and a real felidae.

Maria pictured a felidae warrior in her mind, and then, by concentrating, her whole body started morphing. After a minute or so, Maria looked exactly like a Mobian lynx.

"Meow." Maria grinned while looking at herself.

"Good change." Sally, still as a tigress, gave Maria a good look. "Now, work on other felines."

After a while of practicing, Maria was capable of changing into a lynx, a cougar, a lioness, a male lion (mane and all), a tigress and a cheetah. Then, Sally showed her how to turn into other animals, all of them mammals; they'd work on birds and reptiles later.

"You know, Sally, I just had an idea." Maria, now morphed into an elephant, turned at her teacher. "How much can you inflate your body when taking enough air?"

"Oh, that's a very good trick." Sally, changing back to normal, smiled at Maria, and once, the wolf changed to normal as well. The princess then took a deep breath, making herself huge due all the air she was inhaling, but, unlike the 'fat body' transformation, this time Sally's volume came solely from the air inside her. Maria did the same until she was the same size as Sally; then, both elastic females started floating like balloons.

Once they touched the dome's ceiling, Sally morphed one of her feet into a suction cup, and elongated that limb until it touched the floor; then, she exhaled the air in a controlled way until she was back on the floor. Maria realized that the suction cup trick was to keep Sally from floating away when exhaling, so the wolf did exactly the same. A few moments, later, Maria was back with Sally.

"This actually gave me an idea." Maria said to her mentor. "Can we try it here? It's an attack, and that might be a bit destructive, or at least messy."

"Mmm... okay, explain it to me." Sally grinned, enjoying the fact her pupil was now having ideas of her own.

A few minutes later, Sonic had placed some practice dummies at one side of the test area. There was no delicate equipment there, so it wasn't risky to practice any new moves. Once Sonic moved aside, Maria placed herself in front of the dummies, at a certain distance, before changing her feet into suction cups and then using the inflation trick again. Once she was ready, Maria blew the air out, full force, directing it to the dummies; the result was a hurricane-like wind that sent all the dummies against the closest wall. Tails and Nicole measured the wind's power and speed; it was the equivalent of a F5 category hurricane, enough to take down a house.

"Heh, I'd hate to be a straw or stick house right now. A brick one, of course, would be another story." Marcus joked while looking at his sister's display.

"Even a brick house would have troubles to stand this force, Marcus." Tails commented to him. "It was good that Maria used her feet to secure herself to the floor or she would be sent backwards by the power of her own exhalation."

"I think we did enough with the shape-shifting." Sally said to Maria. "Now, take a break so we can later work in your cloning ability."

Maria, who was finally feeling tired after several hours of non-stop practice, nodded back at Sally. It was lunch time anyway. While everyone else left the dome, Sally stayed a bit more with Nicole, Rotor and Tails, checking out the data they collected during the session, and evaluating the way Sally would help Maria master her cloning ability.

After lunch, and once Maria felt rested enough, she returned to the dome with the others. This time, Sally brought a full body mirror, something that surprised Maria until the princess started explaining.

"We'll work on your cloning powers now. First, I want you to shape yourself after any of your clones; use the mirror to picture yourself with that personality and looks. This time, it's not just a shape-shift, but unleashing a part of your subconscious mind and let it control your body." Sally explained. "Better start with... Heart, or maybe Soul... anyone but Courage, at least for now; just in case you have problems controlling her aggressivity."

Sally thought Heart would be a very good start since her body looked a lot like a sexy version of Maria, and the young wolf was already used to transform in that way. After a few moments, Maria looked exactly like her Heart clone, minus the outfit's colors, that remained the same; then, she looked at herself, staring at her own eyes, until she finally let Heart free to take control.

"Mmm... good to be back, Princess." The body language and the voice were exactly like the first time Maria cloned into multiple selves; even if it was obvious this was still Maria's original body, the personality was completely Heart.

"So, you're Heart now. Where's Maria; the original one?" Sally talked in a paused yet friendly tone. Obviously, giving Maria this ability wouldn't be a good idea if losing her original personality in the process.

"The original is right here." Heart grinned while pointing at her own head. "She just let me out for a walk. And let me tell you, it feels great to be out again... hey, Mom, Dad, think you could give me permission to go to a few parties before I get back to my room?" Heart turned at Lupe and Lobo.

"Not for the moment." Lupe chuckled a bit, actually enjoying this; Heart's body was basically a slightly sexier version of Maria's original, just with much tighter and revealing clothing, just like the first time, yet not overly sensual to the point of making her family uncomfortable.

"Mmm... she reminds me of Fiona Fox in that outfit." Marcus pointed out. "Of course, it looks better on Fiona..."

"Oh, my poor little brother can't admit he thinks his sister is a sexy female." Heart talked to Marcus in a playful yet flirty tone, giving long steps (extra-long, thanks to her stretching legs) before stopping in front of Marcus and petting him like a pup. Marcus groaned and did his best to cover a blush.

"Stop. Making. Me. Feel. Uncomfortable." Marcus was really hating his hormones right now, having to remind himself all the time that this very beautiful wolf in front of him was just his sister with a different shape.

"Now, Heart, stop teasing your brother and get back to your training." Lobo said in a parental tone yet it was obvious he was secretly enjoying this.

"Oh, sure, Daddy Dearest." Heart grinned and hugged her dad (the now usual stretching arms' hug) before bouncing back with Sally.

"Now, Heart, we must practice getting your other sisters out." Sally pointed out.

"Mmm... but I don't want to do the whole 'focusing your mind to get out the personality', Sally. I'm just too glad to be out." Heart pouted a bit before getting an idea. "How about, we try the trick you suggested to make us, the 4 clones, get back into the original Maria, but in an inverse way?"

"Mmm... getting the semi-liquid form, and then separate into independent bodies... Yes, that can work, but only if you really can divide your mind into the separate personalities." Sally explained. "Basically, this would be like an amoeba's reproduction, by mythosis, but the amoebas have no personalities."

"Got it, Princess." Heart grinned. "Remember Maria is still in here, and my memories and experiences are still hers. So, I remember all the training you already gave her, and also how you taught her to let me out."

Heart looked back at the mirror, and, through her eyes, the original Maria's personality started dividing itself while Heart started morphing her body into a semi-liquid form. After a minute or so, the plastic mass morphed into 4 bodies, and then they all started morphing into their clones, each one getting her characteristic outfit.

"Oh, yeah, Courage is back in the house. Or the dome, or whatever." Courage grinned, flexing her muscles.

"A very impressive demonstration of the elasticity and shape-shifting abilities, my dear sister." Wisdom congratulated Heart.

"Thanks, but don't be that surprised; I mean, we all have the same brain, Sis; the only difference is that you like using your own for studying, experimenting, and inventing, while I do for fun and playing." Heart got back her trademark smirk while Wisdom nodded in agreement.

"I think we all appreciate this." Soul gave her a nice, polite smile.

"Oh, please... I don't like having so many sisters!" Marcus groaned, but then got a nervous grin when noticing his human sisters glaring at him. "Eh... because I already have many nice, pretty ones."

"That's what I thought you said."

After the clones got used to be free from Maria's mind, and knowing they could get back to forming the original body at any time, Sally started a collective training session; basically, to make sure all of them could use the abilities she had taught Maria. As Heart had commented, all of them had the same memories and experiences, but, due to their different personalities, some tricks and shapes were easier for some of them. For example, Courage proved herself incredibly capable at shape-shifiting into larger, more powerful shapes, taking deep breaths to inflate her muscles and then increasing their density; the result was as strong as Sally's most powerful shapes. On the other hand, Heart was very gifted at stretching in all kinds of directions and shapes much faster than her sisters, while Wisdom, despite morphing slower than the others (due to her being overly detailed when shifting), her impersonations were extremely accurate and could morph into the most complex shapes, to the point of making perfect copies of her parents' heads with both hands: Marcus joked saying it was like the best, most original hand puppetry session ever.

Soul, being the shy one of the foursome, took some time to be on her sisters' level, since she didn't want to disappoint anyone if not doing it right. After a while, she felt comfortable enough with the simple tricks, like changing into a balloon and morphing her outfit; Soul also found herself a lot more comfortable at shifting just certain parts of her body instead of changing her whole body at once, so she could get the mermaid tail or the bird-like wings without stressing herself, and she soon proved to be quite adept at flying.

"This is fun and all, but can we get out of this dome and have some fun outside?" Courage groaned after a while. "I want to lift and break stuff."

"Even if I have a liking for being surrounded by all this technology, I must agree with Courage... not about destroying assorted materials, but about being outside." Wisdom added.

"Oh, yeah, I'd like that." Heart grinned while making a sexy pose... and then changed to a more relaxed one when noticing her parents were arching their eyebrows at her.

"If my sisters go out... I would like joining them. If possible." Soul added, giving everyone a little, shy smile.

"Oh, fine, guess the village's wolves must get used to seeing you all in public." Lupe rolled her eyes but smiled.

The foursome got out, and pretty much went wild, but in a controlled, acceptable way; to play it safe, each sister had at least a watcher. Heart organized a mini-party with several wolves (Lobo watching over her, just in case); Wisdom went to the library, having an intellectual yet amusing chat with Rotor and Tails, who went with her; Courage had fun competing (and humiliating) all the village's warriors, with Lupe being there to organize the competitions; and Soul used her winged form to fly around and enjoy watching both the nature and her sisters' antics, Sally flying with her yet keeping a distance so Soul could enjoy some independence.

After a while of flying, Soul decided to land and, noticing Courage's competitions were pretty much over by now, thought it would be a good landing spot plus being a chance to spend time with her sister and mother. Sally, of course, followed after her.

"Are you having a good time, Mom?" Soul, landing right next to Lupe, asked her mom while morphing back to normal.

"Yes... heh, can't tell the same about my warriors, of course. They'll need to train a lot in order to heal their egos." Lupe chuckled.

"Heh, sorry about them." Soul smiled. "So, any way I can help you, or provide some assistance?"

"Well, if I can make a suggestion..." Sally landed next to Soul, with a kind smile. "How about, you practice the 'suiting' trick?"

"I... that is a bit too complex. You think I'm good enough to... do that?" Soul looked down, still worried about disappointing everyone if not doing it right.

"Soul, you're part of my daughter, just like your sisters, and I love each and every one of you just like I love the original Maria." Sally encouraged the timid clone. "I'm not gonna judge you if you don't make it perfect the first times; but I'd like if you at least make an effort."

"Guess I can do that." Soul smiled at her mother while Sally placed herself next to Lupe.

"Okay, we'll start with a basic trick; adapting yourself to the 'suited one', in this case, Lupe." Sally changed into her semi-liquid state and then covered Lupe; a few moments later, the wolf leader was dressed with a perfect replica of Sally's outfit. Lupe then made a few moves to show Heart that this trick didn't interfere with her movement or made her uncomfortable in any way. Then, Sally literally 'slipped' down from Lupe's body and then changed back to normal.

Heart nodded and then changed into her own semi-liquid state; then, she covered Lupe's body, and soon changed into a body suit, identical to Maria's original but with Heart's colors. After realizing she wasn't hurting her mother, Heart morphed into a Fiona-like suit.

"Oh, your dad would love to see me like this." Lupe's comment made the suit to get a slightly reddish-pink tone. "Wow. First time I see a suit that blushes."

Sally chuckled at this and then continued offering suggestions for other suits; since Soul was a bit too shy, even if making progress by now, Sally only asked her to morph into regular clothing, even if Soul starting to add some details. For example, a long skirted dress changed into a beautiful princess outfit.

"You like it, Mom?" Soul's body was identical to a little child asking her mother if she liked a home-made gift.

"Oh, I adore it, Soul. You are very good at this trick." Lupe smiled, making the 'suit' to blush again.

"Wow. You're dressed with one of our daughters?"

The females turned to see Lobo staring lovingly at Lupe; then, as if hypnotized, the large male wolf approached his mate and then took her in his arms to kiss Lupe long and lovingly. Soul blushed again but kept the dress shape, enjoying the fact she was making both her parents happy.

Sally looked at this and giggled; then, she left to allow the couple some privacy (as much as they could have with a 'daughter' with them) while she went to see the other clones.

"Ah... the rewards of a teaching career." Sally thought out loud before looking at the many exhausted wolves on the street, result of both Courage's competitions and Heart's wild partying.

"Now this really looks like a university. Hope the girls aren't starting a fraternity." Sally rolled her eyes yet continued smiling.


	11. An Elastic Wolf and An Arch Angel

Chapter 11 - An Elastic Wolf and An Arch Angel

After several days of practice, Maria felt confident enough to work on her powers on her own; even if she could still ask Sally for advice or help, the princess herself had suggested the young wolf to try developing her own tricks and attacks, and Maria did this the best when working alone. Usually, she did it a few miles away from the village, to avoid any collateral damage in case one of her new attacks went bad, as it had happened a few times; for example, the 'Wrecking Ball' attack, even if very effective, was a lot harder to control than the normal bouncing attacks, since Maria made herself a lot denser for maximum impact power, and being that heavy made harder for her to change directions.

One night, after a very exhausting practice, Maria was ready to return home but did it at a slow pace, enjoying her walk under the nocturnal night and watching the stars above.

"_Mmm... the sky is particularly nice tonight... lots of stars, an almost full moon... a shooting star that is getting bigger by the second..." _Maria stopped when realizing what this meant; a meteorite falling down to Mobius.

Soon, the meteorite was big enough for Maria to see it moving at unbelievable speed right over her head; luckily, it seemed the meteorite would land very far away from any inhabited area, but Maria was still worried about this due to the high temperatures meteorites can generate when falling down, many times starting forest fires.

"I'll better go take a look." Maria thought out loud. "This can also be a good time to practice my new division trick."

Even if Maria liked to divide herself into her four different personas, she had been practicing how to divide herself into four clones identical to her original personality, knowing those would be easier to control; of course, the division still made the suits to get different colors, similar to the ones her different personalities clones used, plus, obviously, each clone would lack the super enhancement on a particular aspect that each distinctive personality had. Plus, having the more complex personality of the original Maria, they all had to change into a 'distinctive personality' type after a while.

Maria used full concentration and, after a minute or so, she managed to divide herself into the 4 clones. Since all of them had the same personality, they didn`t even need to discuss the course of action, as they all instantly agreed on splitting up to search for the meteorite; even if they had an idea about the general direction, the speed of the meteorite made the search area quite extensive.

After searching for almost an hour, the clone that covered the most far away areas finally spotted the crater left by the meteorite's impact by following the trail of broken branches, burnt bushes and damaged trees it left before finally crash-landing. The clone then howled at full volume to call for her sisters, and almost instantly she morphed into the Soul personality, including her princess-like outfit.

"I hope my sisters arrive soon. They really must see this." Soul thought out loud in her trademark sweet voice while approaching the crater. She stopped a few feet away from it, and then stretched her neck to take a look over it without needing to be exactly aside the crater.

Soul gasped when realizing there was no meteorite inside the crater, but an unconscious Mobian wolf... or so she thought, because he didn't look like any other wolf she had ever seen. For starters, he had four big black wings with silver trimmings, and a good portion of his muscular, extremely attractive body (Soul blushed a bit when noticing this) was covered with a body armor with leather straps and golden spikes; plus, his extremely handsome face (Soul blushed even more) had several orange markings, and he was holding a huge mace. Those details aside, he looked exactly like a Mobian wolf, with an exceptionally bright black and gray fur.

"DIBS ON THE STUD!"

Soul jumped in surprise when hearing Heart's voice right next to her; her sister had arrived just a few seconds ago and got an instant attraction for the winged male. Soul was so distracted by his handsome yet curious looks that she didn't even notice when Heart arrived, and barely registered when Courage and Wisdom arrived as well.

"Heart, cool down; what stud are you..." Courage gave a look to the unconscious male and grinned. "Mmmmm... check out those arms: I wouldn't mind wrestling him a few rounds."

"As much as I admit to be as... pleased by this stranger's looks as you obviously are," Wisdom, as usual, played the voice of reason even if she was blushing a bit, "we must focus on the details of his sudden appearance. His looks suggest..."

"That he must be admired by any female in a 100 miles area?" Heart grinned.

"Very possible..." Wisdom admitted before going back to a serious mood. "But I was actually referring to how his looks are quite similar to the religious interpretations of archangels and other similar beings. Of course, we must research on this topic to be completely sure, but so far it seems to be the most likely theory."

"An... archangel? You mean, he came from Heaven?" Soul finally got her voice back.

"Hey, if his personality is as attractive as his looks, I'll have no doubt; a guy like this is just too good to not be from Heaven." Heart half-joked.

"Okay, enough chatting. Let's see if he's okay, I mean, he obviously got a very hard landing." Courage finally stopped thinking with her hormones and started using common sense.

"Good thinking. Allow me." Wisdom entered the crater for a closer inspection.

"If he needs to be kissed to get awake, just call me." Heart said in her flirty tone.

Wisdom kneeled next to the supposed archangel to check him out when, suddenly, he opened his eyes; the clone got surprised at this, especially due to the unnatural and almost hypnotic sky blue eyes of his. However, she reacted instantly when the male grabbed his mace and swung it at Wisdom, who barely had enough time to bounce away and avoid the attack.

"Yipes! He wakes up in a bad mood, uh? Guess nobody's perfect." Heart gasped while Soul got a defensive position and Courage growled. The winged wolf jumped out of the crater and raised his mace in a menacing pose.

"Handsome or not, nobody attacks my sisters!" Courage changed her legs into springs to pounce on him, hitting the male with enough force to take him down to earth. However, she was soon sent away by a powerful lightning attack coming from the mace.

The winged wolf prepared himself for a new attack but Wisdom got him in a tight hug, securing both his arms and wings, while barking orders to her sisters.

"Soul, help Courage! Heart, the Wrecking Ball!"

Soul jumped next to Courage to help her stand up while Heart morphed into the heavy, superdense ball form and bounced against the winged wolf, hitting him right in the head, with enough force to send him almost 20 yards away. The male, however, wasn't left unconscious and used his mace to summon a powerful icy wind that hardened Wisdom's body, forcing her to get back to her normal shape.

"Round 2, Big Boy!" The male wolf turned to see Courage's gigantic fist right before it hit his face, actually injuring him. Courage then pounced on top of him and started punching him full force, making her arms and fists a lot bigger and more muscular than usual; the male returned the aggression with equally strong punches until Courage got the upper hand and gave him an impressive uppercut that sent him through several trees (taking them down in the process) before he impacted against a huge boulder, almost reducing it to debris due the blunt force of the hit.

Despite being obviously stunned, the male wolf wasn't completely out of the fight, and started standing up when Soul jumped over him, stretching her whole body to hug and restrain him. The male tried to use his mace again but the other sisters joined Soul and soon kept him completely immobile.

"Soul, he seems to be acting by pure instinct! Try calming him down!" Wisdom, the one restraining his legs, said to her benevolent sister. Soul nodded and stretched her neck in order to position her face in front of his.

"Please, Sir, we mean no harm! We saw you falling and we only wish to assist you. Please stop resisting so we can discuss your situation and stop this fight before anyone gets hurt." Soul gave him both her best Puppy Dog Eyes and nicest, most calming voice.

The male stopped resisting and finally paid attention to Soul's words and eyes. He then started breathing normally and his features changed from feral to a very nice yet concerned expression; in fact, he looked so ashamed of his previous actions that the other sisters almost released him on the spot.

"I... oh... did I... I wasn't thinking... Did I hurt anyone?" The wolf's voice, despite expressing intense regret, was as likable as his physical looks.

"No, you didn't..."

"Because we're not that easy to hurt." Courage interrupted Soul. "You must be more careful, Big Boy; luckily we can take and give a beating, but if you had attacked anyone else..."

"I see. I'm deeply sorry, and I hope you four can forgive me. If you release me now, I promise not to harm anyone."

The foursome, after a little hesitation, released the male while changing back to their normal shapes. The winged wolf then gave them a good look and got a surprised expression.

"First time you see such sexy gals?" Heart grinned when noticing the male staring at them.

"I... I`m surprised that the four of you have the very same soul. Not even identical twins share that characteristic." The winged wolf explained, his curiosity quite obvious by now.

"You can actually see our souls?" Soul got a very impressed look.

"Mmm... another fact that supports the Heavenly Origin Theory." Wisdom added before looking back at him. "And you are correct; let us show you."

The foursome then started the process to fuse back into the original Maria, the winged male getting more surprised by the second.

"You shouldn't be that surprised. After all, you're the one with four wings, an armor, and an elemental mace." Maria grinned.

"Fair enough. And, again, I must apologize for attacking you plus express my gratitude for getting me back to my senses before I injured an innocent being." The male approached a blushing Maria before kissing her hand in a very gentle way. "Daemon is my name, and my life is now dedicated to your service; anything you need, I'll do everything in my power to assure your wealth and happiness."

"I... I... T-thanks..." Maria did her best to get enough control to talk again. ¨My name is Maria, and I'm glad to meet you... and... I think we must... continue our conversation at my village. My parents will be very interested in... whatever you wanna tell them." Maria coughed a bit in the end.

"I`m honored by your invitation, and it will be my honor to transport you myself."

Before Maria could say anything else, Daemon was already carrying her bride-style, and extending his four wings to elevate himself in a powerful yet silent flight. Maria, fascinated by being so close to him and feeling his arms hugging her, almost had to kick herself (considering her powers, it would be possible) to remember to tell him the direction he had to fly.

A while later, Daemon and Maria were at her place, with Maria's family; Sally was there too, very intrigued about this winged wolf and his possible origin. As Wisdom Maria had guessed, he really was an archangel.

"So... you came from Heaven? As in... Paradise? Right next to The Lord?" Sally tried to keep herself calm but it was almost impossible.

"Exactly, Princess Sally... by the way, I must tell, it's a real honor to meet you, Princess." Daemon nodded at Sally in a very respectful way. "Like any other angel, I know about all the living heroes and other remarkable mortals that will, most probably, end in Heaven at the end of their mortal life. By the way, if you can, tell Sonic he has good chances to end in Heaven as long as he keeps the ego under control."

"Sonic controlling his ego? Sir, we are already chatting with an angel; nobody expects so many miracles at once." Marcos half-joked.

"And... joking aside... why are you here?" Lupe asked Daemon. "I thought the spiritual creatures remained... well, spiritual, as in, no physical, flesh and bone body at all."

"And that's usually right, but we can ask for a mortal body when great emergencies arise; and a very big one is about to do it." Daemon got very serious now. "A diabolical soul will use a perversion of mortal science to bring great danger to this realm."

"Robotnik." Everyone else said at once.

"Exactly; as we talk, one of his projects is about to awake an old evil, a supernatural one, and he must surely try to gain control of it. If he is successful, he'll gain control of an almost unlimited evil energy source; if he's not successful, that evil will run loose and without any control."

"He tried to gain superpowers after he gave Sally elasticity powers by accident... and ended giving them to Maria here." Lobo said. "Guess he's still trying to gain powers for himself by non technological ways."

"Wouldn't be the first time." Sally groaned. "After all, that's what he always tries to do with the chaos emeralds."

"Yes, we're aware of those... tendencies." Daemon sighed. "I am glad you and Maria didn't get any ill effects from his evil deeds, and you two are enjoying the benefits of your powers in a responsible way... but I think everyone here is aware of all the evil Robotnik is capable of just by using his extensive yet normal resources, so you can imagine how much damage he can cause of getting access to supernatural powers."

"And this... evil power you're talking about, what it is exactly?" Lupe asked the archangel.

"An old, corrupted spirit that was defeated eons ago, when it tried to turn this realm into a huge lifeless desert. It took a lot of effort and power to control it back then, and it seems Robotnik is getting close to unleashing it."

"And why you're the only one who came here to help us?" Lobo asked. "I mean, there must be millions of angels and archangels..."

"Yes, but the realm that will get invaded is yours, so this is a problem mortals must solve; of course, we're not leaving you defenseless, and that's why I volunteered to offer assistance, both as a battle aid and providing information."

"Okay then... we'll start tracking Robotnik and try to stop him before he summons this dark power." Sally then summoned Nicole. "Nicole, you heard everything?"

"Yes, Sally, and I'll start monitoring for strange energy signals in order to detect new Robotnik's activity." Nicole added.

"And, in the meantime, we must all get ready to fight Robotnik in case he actually manages to summon that power." Lupe said before turning back at Daemon. "You're welcome to stay here at the village."

"Thanks for your hospitality." Daemon nodded respectfully at Lupe. "I'll do my best to provide the best possible assistance."

"Good. Maria, please, get him to one of our guest rooms." Lobo said to his daughter before getting a little grin. "And keep the door open."

"Dad!" Maria blushed furiously before grabbing Daemon's hand and taking him out of the room.

"Heh, you noticed it too, uh?" Lupe grinned at her husband.

"I`d need to be blind to not notice it." Lobo grinned back. "I don't wanna scare away any of Maria's potential mates... not that I think I can actually scare away THIS one... but, archangel or not, we must set a few limits."

"Joking aside, once Daemon gets properly installed, we'll need him to give us more information about this evil source so Nicole can calibrate her circuits and sensors into finding it." Sally explained.

While the group continued making plans, Robotnik, many miles away from the wolves territory, was currently working on a new project, the one Daemon had announced to the heroes.

"Mmm... turning myself into a super powerful being is turning to be quite complicated. Maybe I'd pay more attention to the alternative ways... maybe trying to steal the Chaos Emeralds again, or do something new..." Robotnik, thinking out loud, started checking some old texts. "These ancient transcripts describe a powerful energy source that rivals even the Chaos Power, and can give its owner incredible abilities... Well, considering my awesome intellect, I can work on both projects at once, the Elasticity Powers and searching for this energy source, so I can use one if the other fails."

Robotnik was so focused on starting his new project that he didn't notice a furry figure sneaking inside his laboratory; since this new base was still under construction, it lacked most of the high tech security Robotnik would set up later, so the intruder went undetected and found her way to Robotnik's warehouse.

"_Heh... I hate to admit it, but this map Rouge sold me is worth it's price."_ Fiona Fox grinned while giving another look to a little map; it showed how to move around the base with a minor risk of capture. "_This new base is designed a lot like the one Sonic and his friends destroyed 3 months ago. The map works perfectly here."_

Fiona started checking through the warehouse until she found exactly what she wanted; the remains of Robotnik's elasticity beams plus some discarded prototypes and notes on the same topic. Fiona, by this time, was already aware of Sally's new powers (she still ignored Maria had gained the same abilities), and had decided to gain the very same powers. Even if she lacked Robotnik's scientific genius and resources, Fiona was not ignorant either, and thought she could came up with a working prototype in no time. She even found the notes on the super adaptable suit Sally was currently wearing; the fox realized she would need a similar outfit if gaining elasticity powers since no other suit would stand the strains of a constantly changing and stretching body.

"_And now, to make sure the princess and I will be the only super elastic furries around..." _Fiona set up some explosive charges at the warehouse. _"Sorry, Robotnik, but I can't risk you getting these abilities; you already do enough damage with your sick brain at work."_ Even if Fiona was no heroine, she wasn't evil enough to wish the whole world getting destroyed by Robotnik either, and the mad scientist could get very close to doing it most of the time without the benefits of personal super powers: besides, dealing with Sally would be hard enough, and Fiona wasn't eager to fight either more super elastic heroes or a super villainous competitor.

Robotnik had finished reading the texts for the tenth time in less than 10 minutes (being a genius could come very handy for speed-reading) when he heard the first explosions. The villain called his surveillance robots and dashed to the warehouse, gasping when finding it completely destroyed; whoever did this was long gone.

"The Freedom Fighters... it had to be them..." Robotnik growled, very angry about this personal attack. "Now it will take me even more time to replicate the super elasticity powers."

Robotnik gave the warehouse one last look, evaluating the very extensive damage, and then got an evil grin.

"Okay, this decides it; I'll focus all my efforts on the supernatural force. After all, science's main purpose is to investigate the unknown... and use it."

Back with the wolves, Maria was showing Daemon around town while taking him to the guests' room; same as with Sally, more than a room, it was a small yet comfortable house not far away from the leaders' home.

"And... well, this is your place... the place you'll be staying in, I mean..." Maria was trying very hard to control her emotions now. "There's the kitchen, if you feel like making yourself a snack... and the bedroom, so you can... eh... sleep... You eat and sleep, right?"

"As a mortal, yes, I need to eat; however, one of the powers I still conserve is the capacity to function without any need of sleeping. Angels are eternal advisers and guardians, so we don't need to sleep at all... sure, after a big effort, we need to take a rest, to recover our energy, but aside those special occasions, we have unlimited stamina."

"Unlimited stamina..." Maria blushed very intensely when her hormones reacted to the many possibilities that came with that power. "That's... great... well... I think... you need to rest a bit right now, so you can get... used to your mortal body. I needed some time to get used to my body's new abilities after I... became super elastic."

"Good thinking." Daemon nodded at her, smiling. "I'll go see you and your family tomorrow morning after you all take your own rest."

"Yes... and I'll also take... a shower... I need it..." Maria took some deep breaths. "A very cold shower... Because I worked out a lot today! Yes, that's why."

Maria quickly corrected herself but her feelings towards the archangel were getting extremely obvious by now. Daemon got a bit surprised but then smiled again at her.

"Maria, I can see mortal souls. I can see how you feel." Daemon caressed her face, calming Maria instantly. "I can also see you have a very beautiful soul. And you don't need to feel uncomfortable around me. I'm an archangel and therefore I'm used to hear mortals' thoughts and feelings... it will be nice to actually hear them in person."

"I like how you think." Maria smiled at him before giving Daemon a very quick kiss on his cheek. "You said it... you can see I wanted to do that, so why not do it anyway?"

The nervously grinning young female left the house while Daemon touched his cheek... and smiled very fondly.

"So, this is what mortals feel when a very special someone kisses them... I can say, getting a mortal body is proving to be a wonderful experience." Daemon thought out loud before going to the kitchen and find out if eating mortal food was equally pleasant.

The next day, Daemon joined the little crowd outside the village watching Sally and Maria's training, the 2 elastic females not having too much else to do until Nicole managed to find out Robotnik and/or the dark power source. Now that Maria was a lot more experienced at using her powers, she could actually help Sally train instead of just following the princess' instructions. Maria had to make a little extra effort this time since Daemon's presence kept distracting her; Sally noticed this and decided to do something that would get Maria's mind back 'in the game' while still keeping an eye on the archangel.

"Daemon, want to join us? We need to practice our coordination in battle, and we're also curious about your own abilities." Sally asked the archangel, who had been watching the practice from a nearby tree.

"A very good suggestion, Princess." Daemon, instead of flying down, simply jumped down the tree, getting a little grin when touching the ground. "I also need to get used to my mortal body's capacities... or more precisely, how to use my powers now that I have a mortal body."

"Y-you are less powerful as a mortal?" Maria asked him, Sally chuckling a bit at the female wolf's blushing face.

"Not exactly, but, as a mortal, I can get injured by someone or something powerful enough to do that, plus I need to deal with... forces I had rarely experienced before, like gravity; angels, usually, are weightless and intangible, so now I have to get used to the fact that my body has some weight and that now I can touch solid objects instead of just floating through or around them." Daemon explained.

"Well, I already experienced how strong and resistant you can be... in battle, I mean." Maria quickly added. "Also, I'm curious about your weapon. You can summon wind and lightning with it, right?"

"That, and a lot more." Daemon nodded, remembering that Maria, in her Foursome Clones shapes, had already seen a bit of his mace's abilities. "I have control of all the elements; wind, water, earth, light and darkness, plus all the derived forms of them. For example, lightning comes from air, in other words, the wind; metals are a refined portion of earth; ice is frozen water; the plants grow on earth; fire is a form of light just like shadows are a form of darkness..."

"So you can also control fire, plants, metals, ice, shadows and lightning. Interesting." Sally thought out loud. "How much control do you have on them?"

"Technically, unlimited, but I need to practice how to use them on safe levels. I can create an earthquake with ease, but if I create a very powerful one, I might produce lots of collateral damage." Daemon explained. "In other words, my problem isn't the lack of power but the risks of lacking control."

"Okay then. If you wanna practice your powers, I recommend you to start with wind." Sally suggested, knowing it would be the less dangerous option if losing control of it, especially in an open space with few stuff to get destroyed.

Daemon nodded at the princess and, once everyone gave him a little space, he started spinning his mace over his head, creating a powerful wind that soon created a huge tornado. Sally and Maria had to use their feet as anchors to keep themselves from flying away, while the other wolves watching returned to the village out of caution. Before Sally could yell at Daemon to stop, the archangel did it by himself, the tornado disappearing almost instantly.

"I see why you recommended me to start with the wind. The tornado was powerful enough to be dangerous for non-powered mortals around us; I can only imagine the damage I would cause with a gigantic fireball or with a massive ligthning attack." Daemon said while looking at Sally and Maria. "Maybe you two should keep your distance as well."

"Don't worry. Our bodies are a lot more resistant than normal." Maria replied, not wanting to be away from him longer than necessary.

"And besides, you need someone to supervise your training." Sally added. "Maybe we should provide you with targets you can destroy; if you focus your power just enough to hit them, it will be less likely for you to create a natural disaster."

"Again, I bow at your wisdom, Princess Sally." Daemon nodded at the princess, who smiled at him before the trio started gathering some targets, namely rocks and logs. Once they had a good amount of them, Daemon could practice with the rest of his attacks.

By hitting the ground with his mace, Daemon created a shockwave that moved all the targets several feet away. Then, a light emerged from his mace, hitting one of the rocks, that instantly changed into a bright, metallic sphere; Sally deduced this rock had a large concentration of metallic elements. Daemon then manipulated the sphere to make it hit another target, destroying it, before summoning a small fireball to melt the sphere. The archangel then pointed at one of the destroyed targets, a log that was already reduced to splinters, and the mace's energy made it to regenerate until it changed into a small tree. When looking at the shadow that the tree projected, Daemon used his mace to manipulate and solidify the shadow, giving it the shape of a huge, monstrous wolf, that he commanded to destroy a nearby boulder. He then summoned a small storm cloud that rained huge ice shards over a series of wooden targets, destroying them all. Daemon then realized he only had one target left to destroy, and did it with a series of lightning attacks, reducing it to ashes. Finally, Daemon placed the mace on the ground and summoned a large amount of underground water that washed away the targets' remains.

Through the whole practice, Maria never stopped watching Daemon, paying close attention to all his moves and gulping every time he flexed a muscle or made a move that made him look even better. Daemon, due to his capacity of sensing souls, realized it and at a time was overwhelmed by the incredible raw force of Maria's feelings.

"I think it's enough for now. I'll go check out something with Nicole." Sally said to the pair. "You two can relax or do whatever you want the rest of the morning. See you later."

Before Maria or Daemon could say a thing, Sally was already shaping herself as a ball and bouncing away, the princess getting a sly smile.

"If my knowledge of mortals behavior is accurate... I can almost assure the princess just set us up." Daemon commented.

"I can confirm that." Maria blushed even more than before. "Guess that... I'm getting very obvious about how you make me feel."

"If it makes you a bit more comfortable, I can confide you that... I'm starting to develop similar feelings. And I just hesitated to talk, my throat went dry, and my heart is beating faster than before." Daemon commented while placing a hand on his chest.

"And how fast does it beat if I look like... this?" Maria shape-shifted into an exact replica of her Soul persona.

"I can say, it beats quite fast; and I find the view extremely likable." Daemon approached Maria and caressed her cheek. "Of course, I already did consider the view more than extremely likable before you shape-shifted."

Maria smiled and changed back to normal, happy that Daemon considered her attractive no matter how she looked like. The young female then stretched her neck a bit and kissed his lips for a few seconds.

"I can tell from experience... that what you just did... felt heavenly." Daemon smiled lovingly at her, finally realizing that, in a very short time, he had developed for her the very same feelings she had for him. The male wolf then leaned a bit to kiss her long and tenderly, and Maria kissed back, stretching her arms to hug his whole body while both wolves moaned in delight and excitement at their loving kiss.

Several hundred feet away, standing on a rooftop, and enlarging her eyes to the size of plates to allow herself some long-distance vision, Sally grinned at this while talking to herself in a whisper.

"Heh. Congratulations, Lovebirds."


	12. An Elastic Fox Rises

Chapter 12: - An Elastic Fox Rises

Fiona finished connecting the last wires for her own experiment. Thanks to the information and materials she stole from Robotnik's place, she could make a prototype Elastomatic in a very short time, but powering it up without Robotnik's resources was proving to be a lot harder. Fiona had to use all the energy cells she had salvaged from the evil scientist's destroyed lairs and robots, and still it wouldn't be enough energy for tests; in the best case scenario, Fiona would only be able to power up the Elastomatic for one shot, and then the power cells would be completely drained or at least they'd not have enough juice for another try. It didn't help her either that she had to keep her base very far away from Robotnik's power lines so he couldn't detect her when finally activating the device, meaning she couldn't just steal the energy. And of course, this also meant she couldn't test the machine on a plant or some 'volunteer' before using it on herself; she would need to get the one shot the machine would produce.

"I don't know if I should be angry with you, Sonic, or grateful." Fiona thought out loud while adjusting the Elastomatic. Obviously, most of those destroyed lairs and robots had been Sonic's work, meaning that, ironically, he provided Fiona with the resources she needed to challenge Sally's new abilities; of course, she was also angry because Sonic, as usual, made quite a number on Robotnik's machines and it took Fiona a very long time to find useful power cells among the machinery's remains.

Once Fiona triple-checked her work, and decided it was good enough for use, she turned on the machines. Fiona knew it would take a couple minutes to warm up, so had enough time to dress up and then get into position to receive the Elastomatic's ray. The fox had already finished with her own super adaptable suit, a perfect copy of the original ones aside from Fiona choosing a red and black design. The suit, Fiona knew, wasn't just to have a cool uniform after getting powered up; it would also provide protection against the full force of the ray's energy and give Fiona's body the chance to get mutated instead of getting charred.

Fiona positioned herself in front of the Elastomatic; her version, due to being a prototype made up with salvaged parts, was a lot bigger than the original, which also explained why it needed more energy to work and time to warm up before shooting. Fiona strapped her feet to the platform she had set up in front of the machine, and then took a deep breath when looking at the chronometer she had installed on the ray.

"Ten seconds to shoot... 9... 8... 7... 6... I'm so going to hate myself if this doesn't work... 3... 2... 1..." Fiona closed her eyes, now perfectly ready, at least, mentally.

The energy beam was a lot hotter and more dangerous looking than the ones Robotnik's own versions had fired at Sally and Maria. Fiona couldn't help but yell in pain as the ray changed her molecules from the inside out, the fox convulsing violently yet not moving from her designated spot thanks to the straps she had used to secure her feet. Finally, after what seemed to be hours, but were just 20 seconds, the Elastomatic's ray started losing force, and then, all of a sudden, the machine suffered a mini-explosion, not enough to destroy it, but more than enough to fry all its circuits beyond repairing and shut off the ray.

Fiona fell to the platform, her whole body in deep pain. She made some weak attempts to stand up but it was useless; before long, she fainted, and stayed like this for almost 1 hour.

"My head..." Fiona groaned in pain when finally reacting. "Nnnnngh... now I know how it feels to be cooked in a microwave..."

Fiona started crawling out of the platform and then realized something; she was still strapped to it. The moment she turned to unstrap her feet, Fiona realized she had already crawled more than 30 feet out and away of the platform... and her feet were still strapped.

Fiona wide opened her eyes in surprise and then stretched her arms; after a few moments, they were long enough to reach the feet and unstrap them. Fiona then grabbed a nearby control panel (and, by nearby, we talk about a 20 feet distance) for support and soon she stood up, her legs returning to their normal length. Fiona pulled her arms back to normal size as well, and then gave herself a good look before flexing an arm, making her muscles the size of a bowling ball.

"Heh... I think this is the part where I laugh like a maniac to celebrate a successful experiment. Hah. Hah-hah... Hah-HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" Fiona laughed evilly for a very long time, celebrating her own cunning and intelligence. "Heh, now I see why Robotnik laughs like this all the time; it's very funny."

Fiona was so happy that she started jumping around, delighting herself when the little hopping turned into full bouncing, and then, by mere instinct, she turned into a ball, the fox moving at speeds that she never thought possible until she finally got a hold on herself and cooled down... and almost destroyed all her lab equipment in the process of stopping herself.

"Okay... note to self... I need to calm down a bit. Another note to self... out-loud talking to myself might not be a good sign for my sanity." Fiona took some deep breaths. Since she usually worked alone, Fiona at times talked to herself just to hear some voice and break the silence, but it seemed that this little detail was now turning into a full habit.

"_Hope this isn't a secondary effect of the Elastomatic... talking to yourself out-loud all the time."_ Fiona decided to keep her mind busy to start worrying about her sanity. She went to a separate room where she kept footage of Sally using her powers; she obtained it thanks to spy cameras she had set around both Knothole and the wolves' territory. She couldn't use high-tech ones or place them to close due to the risk of Nicole detecting them, so the images weren't the best, yet still good enough for her to know about some of the most basic ways this elasticity power could be used, and therefore help her practice.

"_Wonder how those fools would feel if knowing I've got similar cameras all over Mobius. Heh, knowing them, when they find one of my cameras, they might think it's Robotnik's work. Good to have a big megalomaniac to get the blame."_

Fiona paid close attention to Sally's transformations, and decided to start with the basic balloon one. The fox took a deep breath... followed by an even deeper one, until her belly was overly inflated. The fox grinned and got back to taking deep breaths until her whole body was inflated; to her delight, Fiona noticed how she was now floating. It wasn't a very high levitation, but still quite good for starters.

Fiona exhaled the air... and realized what Maria had thought when doing the same trick; that you must secure yourself before exhaling all that air at once. The fox started flying out of control as the air propelled her, and only stopped when she could stretch her arms, with her hands enlarged enough to hold a pair of bowling balls each, to secure herself by grabbing a large rock.

"_I must be very careful with these tests." _Fiona thought while recovering from the little experiment. The fox then gave a second look to her enlarged arms and grinned. Then, with some concentration, she morphed her body into a huge, incredibly muscular one.

"_Mmm... not bad at all." _Fiona grinned while admiring her muscles before changing into a voluptuous, incredibly sexy shape. "_Heh. No male in Mobius would deny me anything with this body."_

Fiona then shaped herself back to normal and, after stretching and warming up a bit, she transformed into a slightly larger and more athletic version of herself, changing her face features to appear a bit rougher. When looking at herself, Fiona realized now she was very similar to a wolf.

"_I can use this shape to enter the wolves' village with ease." _Fiona grinned before morphing her hands into maces. "_Just a little more practice on the most lethal aspects of my new powers, and I'll be ready."_

Fiona spent the rest of the day practicing how to turn herself into a living weapon, one so powerful that even another elastic being wouldn't survive her attacks.

The next day, Daemon and Maria were at the forest after spending several hours discussing with the others how they'd handle the evil energy if not finding it before Robotnik, which seemed to be the case since not even Nicole's sensors were working a thing in this particular case.

"This is quite frustrating. It seems we'll not be able to find this old magic until Robotnik or anyone else actually finds and uses it." Daemon sighed. "Now I know how mortals feel when things don't work the way they want. How can you manage it without going insane?"

"The best way is to find things that can get you out of frustration for a while. Like this." Maria gave Daemon a quick kiss on the lips, blushing slightly when doing it.

"Mmm... a method I really like." Daemon smiled at the young female before covering her with one of his wings in an embrace of sorts while they kept walking. They were about to kiss again when a little chipmunk girl in a black and red dress approached them.

"Excuse me, Sir and Miss... but I'm lost. Can you help me find my mommy?" The girl talked in a very sad tone.

"Of course, Dear." Maria separated a bit from Daemon to help the girl but then Daemon's soul-watching eyes detected something.

"Maria, she's not what she seems. She's..."

Before Daemon could say another word, the little chipmunk hit his face with a hammer the size of a watermelon; and the hammer was actually her fist. Maria, stunned, didn't react on time and the chipmunk used this chance to grab her and throw the female wolf with unbelievable force against Daemon, sending both lovers several dozen feet away.

"Handsome and with super eyes; no wonder you like him." The chipmunk grinned before morphing herself back to her normal shape; a fox in a special uniform.

"F-Fiona? How do you..." Maria was speechless, both due to the impact and due to the surprise of recognizing her attacker.

"You thought I'd let other female have things I couldn't?" Fiona grinned before morphing her hands into swords. She had spent the whole day at the wolves village, learning everything she could about Maria's powers and the winged newcomer, so she now knew how to attack them.

"Maria, behind me!" Daemon jumped in front of Maria and used his mace to deflect Fiona's attacks. The fox then stretched her 'swords' and got a hold on the mace; she then kicked Daemon's face with an overly stretched leg, and got the mace for herself. Even if she couldn't use the mace's powers, it was still a powerful weapon that could deliver devastating blows.

Daemon used his powers to call his mace back, but Fiona was still holding it, and due to her powers, it was almost impossible to separate her from the weapon. The fox stretched her tail and covered Daemon's head with it; the winged wolf, only having a mortal body for a few days now, was completely unprepared for this experience; the lack of air. When Maria tried to help him, Fiona gave her head a very strong hit with the mace, stunning her very badly; Daemon resisted as much as possible but he eventually fainted.

"Heh, two targets on a single attack." Fiona grinned when looking at her fallen prey before changing her arms into their more muscular forms. "Now, let's see how much damage I can do when hitting you two with all my power."

Before Fiona could strike again, a blue and white ball appeared from nowhere and hit her right in the chest, leaving Fiona temporary breathless. The ball then morphed into a Mobian rodent.

"That's my apprentice you're attacking." Sally growled before changing into a muscular wolf and hitting Fiona with enough force to make her drop the mace and send the fox a few feet away.

"Oh, don't be jealous, Sally. I was just warming up. You're the main event." Fiona talked in a very fake friendly tone before charging at Sally full force. The elastic females rolled on the ground at high speed, punching and yanking each other with all their strength; Fiona doing her best to kill Sally while the princess did her best to keep the fox away from Maria and Daemon.

Once they were at a very good distance from the unconscious couple, Sally separated from Fiona and tried to catch her by changing her hands into nets, but Fiona escaped the nets by changing herself into a semi-liquid form. Fiona then got her whole body covered in sharp, huge spikes and charged at Sally, who avoided the attack by changing her legs into springs and bouncing away. Then, Sally changed one of her arms into a shield and used it to hit Fiona's spiky body without getting impaled; Fiona replied by getting a large scorpion-like tail and swinging it at Sally's head, who barely had time to make her neck stretch and pull her head away from the stinger. Fiona used this chance to grab Sally by her arm-shield and throw the princess against a tree. The fox grabbed a nearby medium-sized fallen tree and, by changing her arms into rubber bands, improvised a deadly, huge crossbow, with the log working as the arrow. Sally inflated her body to make the tree bounce on her and send it back to Fiona, who contorted her body to avoid the attack and charged again against Sally.

Before Fiona could get to Sally, however, a lightning bolt hit the ground right in front of the fox. Fiona then looked up to see Daemon, holding his mace and flying right over her. The winged wolf then summoned a powerful arctic wind in order to freeze Fiona, who realized she had to escape now.

"I'll get you next time. I promise!" Fiona changed her arms and legs into mole-like paws, and digged her way out of danger. Daemon then hit the ground full force to create an earthquake and force her out, the trick actually working but Fiona was already at a good distance so she didn't emerge next to him or Sally but more than a hundred yards away.

"Over there!" Maria, who was fully recovered by now, spotted Fiona trying to escape. Soon, the fox was using her stretching limbs to move at high speed with Daemon, Maria and Sally in hot pursuit. Even if they were quite fast, and Maria knew this section of the forest very well, Fiona was (no pun intended) cunning as a fox, and incredibly skilled at escaping through difficult terrain; in the past, only Sonic had been able to catch her with relative ease when chasing Fiona through a forest. Daemon tried to fly after her, but the trees didn't make it easy, and flying too high to avoid the branches made hard for him to spot Fiona, so he had to join the chase by flying at a very low height.

"Maybe the plants will help us!" Daemon used his mace again, and made practically every tree and bush to start moving on its own. Even if this obviously made it hard for him, Maria and Sally to continue the chase, it also forced Fiona to slow down. In fact, she got captured by a tree and she had to change her arms into axes to break free.

"Stupid forest! I can't believe the trees are against me." Fiona growled but stopped when a very muscular Maria stood in front of her.

"Not going anywhere. We have you surrounded." The tough Maria said.

"Hah. You, Sally and the winged hunk aren't enough..." Fiona stopped talking when another Maria, in a very sexy outfit, stood at her side. Fiona then realized these 'Marias' didn't have the same color in their outfits.

"You... you are the clones..." Fiona groaned.

"You did your homework." Wisdom stood behind the fox, with Soul next to her.

Fiona started looking for a way out; she found out about Fiona's new ability thanks to her little research, and it actually worried the fox; that's why she had tried to destroy her as quick as possible, without giving Maria time to use her cloning power. The fox then realized Sally and Daemon were joining the group.

"Six against one... not very fair, don't you think?" Fiona snarled.

"You're not exactly someone who practices fair play, Fiona." Sally frowned before getting a little smirk. "But don't worry; it will be one-on-one... of course, Maria's one counts as four."

Fiona then noticed the four Marias were surrounding her, and changing their hands into various contundent objects.

"I don't like violence." Soul said before getting a very serious look and inflating to gigantic size. "But we can't let your attack on our dear Daemon to go unpunished."

"Heh, even Soul wants to beat you up. Foxy, you're screwed." Heart grinned as her right hand changed into a baseball bat and the left one into a mallet.

"Don't worry. This will only hurt... a lot." Courage grabbed Fiona by the collar while morphing one of her hands into a metallic-like boxing gloves with spikes on it.

Fiona actually gulped in fear. The next 60 seconds, before getting knocked out, were a blur for her, and she would always remember this as the day she got beaten up in more than 100 different ways at once.


	13. Trading Bodies

Chapter 13 - Trading Bodies

A while later, at Knothole, everyone gathered around Fiona, trying to decide what to do with her. After Maria's clones knocked her unconscious, Daemon used his powers to entrap her in a block of ice, and then he, Sally and Maria, along with Lupe, Tails and Rotor, transported her to the Freedom Fighters' base, since the wolves village had no proper place to restrain someone with Fiona's new found skills. Right now, they were all discussing ways to deal with the super elastic fox.

"I still wonder how she got the powers. I don't think Robby just shared his technology with her." Sonic commented.

"She must probably stole some tech, or maybe Robotnik used her as a guinea pig... or guinea fox... as he was trying to do with the wolves when Maria got her powers." Bunnie guessed.

"We'll interrogate her later. Right now, the main problem is where are we gonna keep her." Sally frowned.

"In deed. I've restrained her in an icy prison for the time being, but keeping her like this... I don't find it ethically correct." Daemon said, everyone actually agreeing with him. Keeping someone like an overvalued ice sculpture, even if that someone was a villainous fox, in a permanent stasis, would make them as evil as Robotnik himself.

"But with her elasticity powers, it would be very hard to keep her conscious and trapped inside any cage." Lupe pointed. "Even Nicole's high tech prisons might not be enough to hold her, and we all know what she'll do if getting free again."

"I agree with Lupe." Nicole said while examining Fiona. "My scanners show she's still alive and relatively well, but we can't keep her frozen like this permanently without risking her health... but I'll be the first one to admit that creating a prison capable of holding a being with Fiona's abilities is quite a challenge."

"Unless... we trap her mind instead of her body." Tails said to Nicole, the sentient computer sharing a thoughtful look with the young fox.

"Care to share with the rest of the class? And please, try to keep the 'Nerd Talking' as low as possible." Sonic said to his friends while the rest of the group turned at Nicole and Tails.

"Nicole and I had been working on a way to provide her with a real, physical body." Tails explained. "The process involves transferring her program... essentially, her mind and soul... into a flesh-and-bone body without sentience; to do this without messing with an innocent's life, of course, we'd need to wait until finding a comatose or brain-dead patient so Nicole can take possession of his/her body with the consent of the victim's family."

"In theory, we can reverse the process so I can return from a 'real body' to my normal place at the computers' servers and hardware." Nicole continued. "If we apply this to Fiona, we might be able to transfer her mind... her very essence... to a computer's chip. Since Fiona doesn't know how to move through the cyber-space, she would be trapped inside the chip without any chance of escaping, while I'd be able to inhabit her body."

"Soul Transference... it's amazing what you mortals can achieve with all the free will you have." Daemon thought out loud. "Still not the best solution but it's actually a good idea. That way this fox will recover sentience... if she can be sentient inside your machines..." Daemon waited for Nicole to nod before continuing. "And we might be able to talk and reason with her."

"Fiona isn't exactly reasonable, but if getting separated from her body doesn't make her more perceptive, nothing will." Sally admitted. "Okay, we'll go with that plan, but I also want you..." The princess pointed at Nicole, Tails and Rotor, "... to come up with some way to get Fiona out of the computer and give her a body of sorts without giving her access to her original body. We saw the lethal potential of her new found elastic powers first hand, and we don't need her to attack us again."

"Why can't we just keep her inside the computers for good?" Rotor proposed. "I know it's kinda extreme, but then again, Fiona made herself a very extreme foe for us."

"That would be too much." Sonic spoke, not used to say anything in Fiona's defense but he had good reasons this time. "Being trapped in there forever would drive her insane; I can barely stand being indoors more than one day without me trying to dash out for a quick run around the neighborhood, and guess it would be the same for Fiona inside a computer."

"Plus, if she stays in there for long, Fiona would eventually find a way to 'infect' the computers, like a virus, and gain the same control I have over the whole system." Nicole added. "Even if I get transferred inside her body, I'll make sure my mind still conserves a link to the compúters so I can still control them... but that will be hard to achieve if there's another sentience in the system."

After a little more debating, Sally and Nicole started working on the Mind Transference Device while Rotor and Tails worked on the 'alternative prison' for Fiona, the others providing any assistance required. Luckily, once Tails and Nicole could make some very easy to understand blueprints for the machines the group would need to build, Sonic could use his speed to assemble them in a matter of minutes.

Finally, the transference procedure could begin. Daemon took Fiona out of her icy prison yet kept her body in a slightly frozen state so the fox couldn't wake up by herself; the archangel place her in a surgery-like table while Sally and Rotor connected some cables and sensors to her body, the other end of those connected to Nicole's main control panel. while Tails helped Nicole with the last calculations.

"I'm waitiiiiiiiiing." Sonic rolled his eyes and tapped the floor with his foot, doing his usual impatience routine. When Daemon turned at him, the blue hedgehog simply chuckled. "I'm just kidding, Daemon... but you must understand that a speedster like myself sometimes... has problems with the speed the rest of the world is moving."

"I see. It's not different from how I had to adapt myself to having a solid body..."

"Or Sally and me getting a shape-shifting one." Maria added to her now almost official boyfriend's comparison. Lupe, who was helping Bunnie with some cables, looked at her daughter and the large archangel and smiled; she didn't need soul-analyzing eyes to realize Maria and Daemon had a very deep feelings for each other, and even if the whole 'becoming an archangel's in-law' could be intimidating at first, Lupe reminded herself that she and her friends were in constant battle with a robot-obsessed mad scientist, and some of those friends were a bionic rabbit, a sentient computer program, a genius two-tailed flying fox, a blue hedgehog who was "the fastest thing alive", and of course, two elasticity powered females. Taking all this into consideration, a relationship between her daughter and a spiritual being wasn't that far from normality.

"We'll need a lot of power for this transference." Nicole instructed everyone. "Sonic, if you can help with the turbine..."

"I'm on it." Sonic walked to a large turbine and positioned himself inside it, similar to a hamster wheel. Then, when Sally and Nicole gave him the signal, the blue hedgehog started running, his speed powering up the turbines to the point it generated more than 10 times the energy Knothole could use in a whole month.

"I could have powered up the machines with my lightning..." Daemon whispered at Maria, even if the archangel was visibly impressed by Sonic's display of speed.

"Yes, but if we don't give Sonic something to keep him busy, he drives himself crazy, and then does the same with the rest of us." Maria chuckled. "It was this or sending him to buy the chili dogs."

After a few seconds, Tails gave Sally a nod, and the princess and Rotor activated the transference process while the young fox monitored both Fiona's vital signs and the energy flux coming from Sonic's turbine. The fox's body was then covered in an electric glow, and a few moments later, her eyes opened, white, intense light coming from them, as Nicole's holographic image disappeared from sight and seemed to get literally sucked inside Fiona's eyes, and a small surge of red and blue electricity jumped from Fiona's body to a nearby computer panel that Sally and Nicole had prepared previously.

Sally gave Sonic the signal to stop running, and once he did, Tails cut the flux of energy while sending the remaining one to a set of special batteries that would save it for later use; after all, they weren't wasting all the energy that Sonic produced. Rotor then checked out the computers' monitors and nodded.

"We have Fiona's essence. I'm sending it to the computer cell now." The walrus informed. Sally nodded at him while she and the others surrounded Fiona, the electric shock having defrosted her completely. The fox stood up and then used the bed for support, as a baby giving her first steps.

"I... I can feel things... I can actually feel the objects... and... the air... I'm breathing..." The voice, even if Fiona's, was definitely Nicole's tone, not to mention she had the same body language. "And... this... beating in my chest... it is... it's my heart, right?"

"Welcome to the land of the flesh and bone guys." Sonic grinned at Nicole while helping the computer-turned-real flesh keep her balance.

"You'll get used to it after a while." Daemon smiled, more than familiar with the sensations Nicole was experiencing at this moment.

Nicole smiled while looking at her hands, and then tried to do one of the tricks she had seen Sally and Maria perform; a simple enlarging of her hands, just for starters. This was easier said than done as she couldn't control the fingers that well; some grew smaller, others grew thicker than her whole arm, and one grew long enough to poke Tails' nose, the young fox located around 5 feet away from Nicole.

"It's not as easy as I thought." Nicole admitted, puzzled. "I had seen you doing more complex things with very few practice; I thought that, with my previous analysis..."

"Nicole, it's alright. You aren't used to have a physical body; you must learn to control your normal moves before trying to use those powers." Sally explained her. "After all, you're getting used to just staying on your feet, so super stretching yourself or shape shifting will need to wait."

Nicole nodded at this and, while she started practicing some normal moves, Tails went to see the monitors to check out Fiona's state.

"She's already conscious. Better let her know what happened before she goes crazy inside that virtual cell we programmed." Tails said to his friends, all of them nodding at the idea. Tails sent a few commands to the computer, and soon Fiona's face appeared in a monitor.

"W-what happened? Where did you morons jail me?" Fiona growled before noticing her body standing behind Sally. "AND WHAT AM I DOING OUT THERE IF I'M IN HERE?!"

"We separated your conscience from your body, Fiona; congratulations, you finally made yourself dangerous enough to force us to design a very original way to keep you imprisoned." Sally frowned before pointing at Nicole. "Don't worry about your body here; Nicole will take good care of it."

"Nicole...YOU GAVE MY BODY TO YOUR GLORIFIED CALCULATOR?" Fiona's roar was so terrifying that everyone took a step back.

"Wow. So, this is how it feels to cringe." Nicole commented to nobody in particular while rubbing her arms to warm them up after Nicole's first time experiencing physical fear sent chills all over her new body.

"You better start behaving, Fiona, or we'll make sure your prison turns even more dislikable." Sally pointed at Fiona, the princess getting her royal authority back.

"How can it get worse than... THIS? I can't feel a thing! It's... it's like being a ghost." Fiona argued back.

"Well, if you don't cool down, we can turn off the monitor, and then you'll see nothing at all. Good luck trying to keep your sanity in a completely senses-deprived environment." Tails said, his words making Fiona to get a certainly scared face.

"Or even worse, seeing nothing but the wallpaper." Sonic grinned before pressing a few keys that affected Fiona's monitor, the fox now being surrounded by a large yellow wall with several chili dogs imprinted in it. "Heh, I downloaded this one last night."

"Great use of my megabytes, Sonic." Nicole frowned at the grinning hedgehog.

"Now, Fiona, this is the part where we make a deal with you. We all admit that this is a cruel, unusual punishment, but you didn't leave us any choice, and all the other options were even worse." Sally got back to talking with Fiona. "We can't let you recover your body since, obviously, you have no problems using it lethally, so we propose to give you another body so you can get out of the computer."

"A new body, huh?" Fiona frowned. "Let me guess; a comatose turtle's?"

"No. A robotic fox." Rotor approached the monitor to show Fiona a set of blueprints. "It's almost done now; just a few more details and you'll be ready to get transferred in there. However... we must come to a mutual agreement first."

"Namely, you promise not to attack us or do any other criminal activity." Lupe snarled at Fiona. the wolf obviously still angry at the fox's attack on her daughter, her potential son-in-law, and Sally.

"We're serious, Fiona. If you break your part of the deal, we can turn off the robotic body instantly, and send you back to the computer cell. Plus, if we add weaponry to the robot, you must promise us to help us fight Robotnik and watch our backs in any dangerous situation; if you don't promise that, then maybe we'll give you this body but it will be a weaponless one and we'll keep it weak enough so you can't even defend yourself." Sally continued. "We're not discussing any of those conditions. That's the deal. Take it or Leave it."

Fiona pondered about her situation and the two options. She hated the idea of becoming an unwilling assistant, plus Nicole's possession of her body was a terrible insult, but the other option was to remain a prisoner inside the computer, and Fiona was already going crazy after just a few minutes of it. The fox finally sighed, groaning when remembering that, technically, she wasn't even breathing at the time being, and nodded at Sally.

"Fine. If my only way out of here is to become a criminal on probation doing community service inside a robotic body, I'll take it. But you better give me some good weapons and make my robot body much stronger than average." Fiona couldn't help but add a couple of conditions of her own. If she was destined to become a robo-fox, she would, at least, be a powerful one.

The others nodded in agreement, and the technologically-skilled ones went back to finish working on the robot. In the meantime, Sally and Daemon chatted with both Fiona and Nicole, giving them pointers about how to handle a new body, especially considering the new abilities they would get.

Several hours later, Nicole was already dominating the simplest transformations and moves, and the robotic body was finally finished. It looked a lot like Fiona's original body but it was easy to tell it was a cybernetic one, Tails and Rotor doing it on purpose instead of making it more flesh and bone-like so everyone would be aware of her condition and therefore be aware of her true nature so Fiona couldn't trick others or take advantage on them. They also gave Fiona a suit resembling the one she normally used to wear before gaining her powers, but made it in a white and silver pattern.

"Well, Fiona, what do you think?" Tails talked to the monitor Fiona was currently at, while the now cyber-fox looked at her soon to be new body.

"Can you make it a bit... more like I used to look like?" Fiona asked. "I mean, even if I'm trapped inside this computer, my 'body' still looks like the flesh-and-bone one..."

"More like, flesh-and-rubber one." Sally interrupted her. "And no, we can't give you a more 'lively' appearance, Fiona. You had always been an attractive-looking female, and you can use your aspect to trick others. This way, we'll make sure you'll not seduce some poor fool into helping you get rid of the secures we've installed in the robot so you can't betray us."

"You know me too well." Fiona groaned. "Fine.. I'll get the robo-fox, but get me out of here; I'm already feeling claustrophobic in here."

As they did before when trading Fiona and Nicole's consciences into the fox's body and Nicole's computers, the Freedom Fighters connected the robotic fox to the control panels. Unlike the previous exchange, however, this time they didn't need Sonic to provide extra power since the batteries were still fully charged from his running and had more than enough juice for this procedure.

Fiona, inside the computer, nodded at the princess when the fox felt confident enough to start the exchange. Sally then pressed a few buttons and made a signal to Rotor and Tails, the two guys finishing the transference. Fiona's face disappeared from the monitor and everyone saw an energy surge traveling through the cables and direct inside the robot. After a couple of minutes, the download was complete.

"Did it work?" Sonic approached the robo-fox from behind and, all of a sudden, it turned its head in a 360º spin, looking at Sonic face to face.

"Does this answer your question?"Sonic jumped when hearing Fiona's voice. Due to a special synthetizer in the robot's throat, Fiona conserved her original voice yet with a distinctive electronic echo. Everyone else laughed when Sonic jumped a step behind. Of course, being Sonic, he recovered his joking attitude immediately.

"It's alive. It's alive!" Sonic exclaimed while getting a dramatic pose and voice, making everyone but Fiona to laugh even louder.

"Glad you are having fun with my condition." Fiona was suddenly glad that Rotor and Tails made her new body capable of expressing emotions, because she was frowning now.

"Oh, come on, Fiona, it won't hurt you to have a sense of humor." Sonic grinned but stopped doing it when noticing Fiona's hateful glare. Sally decided to stop any possible problem by getting between them.

"Okay, jokes aside, how do you feel in the robot's body, Fiona?"

"It's... hard to describe... it's like, the inverse I felt when getting my elasticity powers. I feel so heavy... so restricted... and at the same time, I don't have real sensations." Fiona said while touching her own arms and legs. "It's like controlling my arms from outside my body."

"If you want, we can work on that. With a little concentration, you'll be able to get some amount of sensing." Daemon offered himself, knowing perfectly how this kind of change could be hard to assimilate. After all, he had attacked Maria the moment she found him the first time precisely due to his mind getting overwhelmed to his new mortal body's sensations.

"For starters, you must learn how to walk. Once you can do the simple moves, we'll be able to start showing you your weapon system." Rotor offered a hand to Fiona, the robotic fox needing some time to grab it, not out of dislike for Rotor but due to her problems to move the robotic arm. Then, with the walrus' support, she managed to walk a few steps, Fiona hating the fact she was now reduced to a baby-like state, at least concerning her reflexes and coordination, for the time being.

After an hour or so, both Nicole and Fiona were already more or less comfortable in their new bodies, especially Nicole, who was enjoying herself like a kid in a candy store.

"No wonder you all enjoy being flesh-and-bone so much." Nicole commented while eating her fifth chili dog (after all, Sonic ended going to get the food), enjoying the spicy sensation in her mouth and the satisfaction feeling in her stomach. "Mmmmm... oh, Sonic, these things are delicious! No wonder you eat so many!"

"You're welcome. One bit of advice; don't eat so many at once. I'm used to the chili, but if your body normally doesn't take a lot of it, and you suddenly eat like crazy, you might get sick, and that's a sensation you don't wanna experimence." Sonic suggested Nicole while eating his own chili dog... the sixth one.

"Yeah, take care of my body." Fiona, now walking normally, frowned at Nicole. "I hope I can get it back someday, and I don't want to return to an overweight body with gastric and flatulence problems."

"This body's rubber-like constitution must be able to stand the acidic nature of the chili dog's condiments, plus it's partially your fault, Fiona, that I'm this didn't eat a thing for several hours prior to your attack on Daemon and Maria, right?" Nicole looked back at Fiona, who couldn't help but groan and nod in agreement.

"Yeah, I know... argh, this is too weird. You have any idea of how disturbing this is; for me to talk to, well, myself?" Fiona groaned.

"If you feel more comfortable talking with a face that isn't yours..." Nicole then morphed her face until it no longer looked like a fox's, but like her original lynx-like appearance. Fiona did her best to mimic a robotic sigh and then nodded at Nicole, obviously liking this little detail.

"Okay, since you are already moving normally, Fiona, we're starting to work on showing you your weapons." Tails approached the robotic fox and then motioned her to follow him to the tests area. "Due to obvious reasons, we didn't give you long-ranged firepower, meaning you have no lasers or guns of any type.."

"Still not trusting me completely, uh? Okay, that's fair." Fiona shrugged. In the Freedom Fighters' place, she wouldn't trust a captured enemy turned forced ally with anything capable of killing any of them from a distance.

"Yes. However, since you already dominated the elasticity powers before getting transferred to this body, we gave your robotic body limited shape-shifting capacities that will allow you to adapt it into a multitude of attacking options. This similarity with the elasticity and morphing powers of your previous body will help you get used much faster to your robotic abilities." Tails' speech got Fiona's full interest.

"How 'limited' is my power?"

"Well, you're 'limited' when compared to the nearly limitless capacities of the elastic body, but next to other machines, you are far from defenseless. Your body is as fast and agile as your original, pre-powered one, plus being considerably stronger... however, you'll only have an actual degree of super strength when using your weapons."

Fiona nodded, understanding this was a safety measure to prevent her hurting someone by accident in case she lost control of her body's moves when not fighting.

"The variety of shapes you can adopt is extremely wide-ranged. Basically, you can morph your body into almost anything mechanic, from a cannon to a motorcycle or a jet pack." Tails explained while using the test's area holographic projections to illustrate his point. Fiona then looked at the hologram of what it seemed to be a jackhammer, and then, looking at her own hand, morphed it into a very accurate replica of the holographic image.

"You can also morph your body into a variety of tools. Basically, you're a walking Swiss army knife." When Tails stopped talking, Fiona couldn't help but morph her other arm into precisely that, an oversized version of a Knight's Sword, complete with a Battle Saw setting.

"If you can turn into a toaster and a can opener too, we're giving you kitchen duty, Fiona." Sonic chuckled at this yet it was obvious he was impressed with Tails and the others' work.

Fiona groaned at this, realizing she would need a while to get used to Sonic's sense of humor, but otherwise she was reasonably comfortable. She still had to work on getting her sensations back but the fox was glad that her new body wasn't defenseless and actually had several useful appliances.

The rest of the day, both Nicole and Fiona worked on their new bodies' battle capabilities; at first, Fiona simply mimicked, as much as possible, all the shape changes Nicole was performing, and soon the fox was morphing her arms and legs into whips, lassos, maces, swords and shovels, plus making her fists and feet grew to a size they could easily smash a boulder or, in the case of the feet, allow her to jump over long distances. However, when Nicole moved to full-body changes, Fiona realized she wouldn't be able to mimic those so focused on mechanical applications of her powers. Following Tails' suggestion, she morphed her legs and feet into motorcycle-like wheels, and soon was moving around the tests area at a very decent speed.

"Not bad. Now, let's work on the flight applications of your powers." Sally, joining the practice, got two large bat-like wings on her back and started flying around. Nicole did the same, getting instant happiness at the sensation of flying, while Fiona, incapable of making functional animal-like wings, decided on creating machine-like ones, two large jet-like wings, complete with turbines, appearing on her back and allowing her to fly even faster than the elastic females... but not with the same agility. Fiona had to stop on mid air to avoid hitting the dome's walls and then changed her feet into the 'giant boots' shape to land over them without damaging her body.

"The jet flight is too fast to use indoors." Sonic, who, obviously, was the expert when it comes to speed, approached Fiona for a little instruction. "If you wanna fly in a closed space, try doing like Tails and his... well, tails; use a helicopter-like machine. Not too fast but a lot easier to control and very good to maneuver in a closed space."

Fiona, realizing Sonic was right, modified the jet wings so they could work like a helicopter's propellers, and then changed the location to her feet instead of her back, thinking it would be like controlling a skateboard. After a few failed attempts, Fiona started flying with both speed and agility, basically turning herself into a vulpine hover car.

"This has potential." Fiona thought out loud while working on her flight. Sally looked at her from a short distance, glad that the fox was actually enjoying her robotic body's capabilities, as this make her less probable to betray or rebel against them in the middle of a combat situation, even if, obviously, the Freedom Fighters would still need to keep a close eye on her.

"Go with Tails now so he can instruct you about your body's maintenance. I'll practice a few more changes with Nicole." Sally said to the fox, who nodded at the princess and went to talk with Tails. As Sally said, the young genius had to instruct Fiona on several details about the robotic body's functions and proper maintenance, including a general chat about its power source, heat levels and so.

In the meantime, Sally and Nicole started practicing some animal shapes. Nicole turned into a very convincing Mobian wolf in no time, but then again, a fox isn't so different from a wolf, so it wasn't that hard; just increasing her own size and making herself a bit more muscular while getting slightly rougher body features. Changing into a lynx wasn't a problem either, since, obviously, Nicole was more than used to that appearance and the transformation was almost instantaneous. The hardest, however, came when Sally made Nicole try changing into male forms; Sonic couldn't help but laugh out loud when Nicole transformed herself into Knuckles, Tails, Daemon and even Sonic himself; her 'Knuckles' was overly muscular, enough to make the real one envious but, obviously, this didn't make a good copy; her 'Tails' was much smaller than the real one; her 'Daemon' was the contrary situation of her 'Knuckles', not getting muscular or big enough; and her 'Sonic' had very long legs plus looking much fatter than the real one.

"Heh, if I really look like that, I must stop eating so many chili dogs." Sonic continued laughing.

"I think now I know the concept of embarrassment." Nicole groaned while changing back to her lynx appearance.

"It's okay, Nicole; at least we now know your main weakness when imitating others. You get the faces just perfectly, but you have problems with the body types... not that surprising if we consider you lacked a physical body until today." Sally commented. "We're working on that right now."

Sally transformed into her muscular self, with Nicole imitating her; she did great at first but soon exaggerated the muscles' size to the point she had troubles just to walk a few steps.

"And this is why it's not good to go to extremes. Huge muscles mean great strength, but gigantic muscles mean you sacrifice speed and overall mobility." Sally instructed Nicole, the latter understanding this and soon she changed into a still statuesque amazonian body yet still conserving a more than decent speed and agility. Tails and Rotor had to look the other side so nobody could see them blushing over Nicole's new body; Fiona still noticed this and grinned a bit.

Then, Sally showed Nicole how to make herself super sexy, a shape that was great to distract male opponents or make them act like fools, as Sonic proved when Sally changed into her voluptuous self, the blue hedgehog drooling like a dog looking at a steak.

Nicole, again, overdid the transformation at first, making her bust so big she couldn't keep her own balance, and had to stretch her arms to grab a nearby computer panel and avoid falling down. Rotor excused himself for a moment to 'get a drink'... in reality, he went to the bathroom to splash himself with freezing water; when returning with his friends, Rotor had to return to the bathroom, this time with Tails and Sonic's company, since Nicole had finally mastered the 'sexy look' and now there were 2 super attractive females, Nicole and Sally, standing in the middle of the room. Daemon, who was just too much in love with Maria to even get distracted by another female, no matter her beauty, had no problems himself, and simply admired Nicole and Sally in a platonic, non-hormonal-driven way; still, Maria decided to join the fun and change into her own sexy self, and, this time, Daemon really looked more than pleased at the result, kissing and hugging her immediately.

"I think they didn't like this transformation as much as Daemon liked Maria's." Nicole said to Sally, commenting on how Sonic and the others left.

"Oh, trust me, they liked it... too much for their own good." Sally rolled her eyes yet grinned.

"If you say so... and it's normal to have this sensation in your abdomen when changing into a sexy shape?" Nicole said while rubbing her belly. "Nnnnngh... in fact... it's a very discomfortable sensation."

Sally and the ones remaining at the room wide opened their eyes and gulped, realizing what Nicole was feeling at the moment.

"Okay, time to show you one of the inconveniences of having an organic body... disposing of your waste material." Sally groaned, holding Nicole's hand and taking her to the bathroom. "Oh, why you had to eat chili dogs today?"

"Better teach her correctly, Princess." Fiona frowned. "I don't want my old body to need diapers!"


	14. Mandara Unleashed

Chapter 14 - Mandara Unleashed

While the Freedom Fighters continued working on finding the evil force plus working with their new teammates, Robotnik was already very ahead in his search, not just finding the evil force but also working on ways to control it once unleashed.

"Okay... this will work nicely." Robotnik grinned while holding his newest invention; a special belt that -would allow him to absorb the force's power for himself, and also allow some control over it... or at least, that was what Robotnik expected. "Magic or not, it's still energy, and it has to follow the same basic rules as electricity or any other force."

"Sir, are you talking with me?" One of Robotnik's maintenance robots stopped doing its chores and turned at the scientist.

"No; that was just me in the middle of one of my monologues; I... work better when I say my ideas out-loud." Robotnik shrugged.

"Understood." The robot went back to work, whispering a very silent 'What a wacko' for himself.

"You were saying something?"

"No, Sir; I work better when I say my ideas out loud." The robot left and Robotnik groaned while taking out a tape recorder.

"Note to self; stop programming sarcasm into the robots' personality."

Meanwhile, Daemon and the Freedom Fighters' scientists had finally located the most possible locations of this evil force. Since even the archangel wasn't sure about which location was the right one, they had to divide into teams.

"Sonic, you're taking this one; it's the furthest one, so you're the only one here who can go there on a short notice." Sally gave Sonic a map, showing him the location he'd be checking out.

"Hey, anything for you, Princess... oh, and for the planet, and the survival of all species, and making Robotnik madder than usual and blah. blah, blah." Sonic grinned while checking out the map. Sally rolled her eyes yet smiled at the blue hedgehog, the speedster dashing away a split second later.

"And where are you sending me, oh, wise, dear Princess?" Fiona rolled her robotic eyes, not happy about helping in such a dangerous mission yet knowing she'd have no choice.

"You're going with Bunnie and Nicole to the possible site west from here." Sally got a slight yet obvious authoritarian tone with the robotic fox. "And remember, if you misbehave..."

"I know, I know, you'll recycle me." Fiona groaned while Bunnie grinned at the idea of being able of ordering Fiona around.

"Daemon, Maria and I will go to the third possible location." Sally nodded at said archangel and his elastic girlfriend before looking at Tails and Rotor. "You two will coordinate the three teams from here; also, try to contact Knuckles so he can go help Sonic; his location isn't that far from Knuckles' home."

"I just hope they don't spend more time arguing than doing their job." Rotor sighed.

"Oh, you have to be more optimistic... they might spend EQUAL time arguing and working, but not MORE time." Tails chuckled a bit.

"And where am I going?" Amy, who had started working with the others on the previous days (more like, looking for excuses to be with Sonic), moved in front of the group.

"Amy, you're staying with Lupe here, and be our back-up team." Sally said to the pink hedgehog.

"But I want to help!" Amy groaned loudly.

"You can help me train while the others are searching for the evil force. As non-powered warriors, we have the obligation of perfecting our fighting skills on a regular basis." Lupe said to the young girl; Amy sighed and nodded, yet still hating the fact that now there were too many super-beings in the team, making the relatively normal ones like herself to be relegated to minor tasks.

A few moments later, the 2 remaining teams left their headquarters; Fiona used her new hoverbike to follow after a jet feet-flying Bunnie, the bionic rabbit carrying Nicole all the way, while Daemon used his wings to transport both Maria and Sally, both elastic females morphing into gliders so the flying male only had to impulse them rather than physically carry them.

Sonic had no time at his location, located several hundred miles north from Knothole Village; even with him and Knuckles removing large rocks all over the place searching for religious symbols or anything that might indicate the presence of the evil source, they didn't find a thing. However, they still decided to stay there for a while in case Robotnik arrived with some device capable of finding the force in ways they couldn't.

"So... Nicole now has Fiona's elastic body, uh?" Knuckles asked Sonic as they both started looking for a good place to wait for the mad scientist's possible arrival.

"Heh, yeah, and now Fiona lives in a super technological crash dummy." Sonic chuckled. "Hope she gets used to it... otherwise, she'll go crazy in no time and Sally will need to deactivate her."

"I would do that, like, right now." Knuckles frowned. "That crazy girl gave powers to herself just to have a better chance to kill all of us."

"Well, Nicole now has Fiona's elastic body now." Sonic shrugged. "And I think she's enjoying it."

"I just hope that this decision doesn't turn against us all, as usual." Knuckles frowned.

"Ah, always looking at the positive side of things, uh?" Sonic laughed while Knuckles sighed, realizing he wouldn't be able to convince Sonic any time soon.

Meanwhile, the 'all females team' had finally arrived to its destination; an old temple's ruins. Bunnie started using her cyborg strength to move aside some boulders and search for any clue, while Nicole used her new elasticity and shape - shifting to move around the ruins faster and more easily than her companions. Fiona stayed behind, using her robotic sensors to watch around the area in case Robotnik or some other unlikable guest arrived while the other 2 females were searching. The fox was obviously upset about teaming up with Bunnie and Nicole, and, besides the fact her abilities made her a better watcher than the others, she volunteered to do this so she had an excuse to spend as little time with them as possible.

"Stupid Rabbit... treating me as a tool... and Stupid Glorified Computer Chip... playing with my body..."

"I think that you must work on the whole 'talking with yourself', Fiona." The cyber fox turned to see Nicole approaching her. "That was loud enough for my elongated ears to hear it... and I'm sure Bunnie heard it too..."

"Well, excuse me for not longer being able to talk under my breath... SINCE NOW I CAN'T BREATH AT ALL!" Fiona frowned at Nicole before turning her back on the elastic female. "Shouldn't you be helping the Tin Can Bun right now instead of being here, driving me crazy?"

"She is removing some old columns so we enter further into the temple, and I found nothing in my designated area... then again, I'm still learning how to use my new body's senses, and sometimes I get too distracted, so I might need to take another look later. And I don't see how can I 'drive you crazy' just by making an observation..."

"Well, Miss Super Computer Brain, if you consider that the reason I am here working at a glorified watch tower is because of my body currently being occupied by somebody else, namely YOU, then you wouldn't be so surprised that I can't stand your company at all, comments or not!" Fiona snapped back at Nicole.

"Oh." Nicole took a step back. "Well... in my defense, I'm still learning how to deal with empathy and social interaction; sure, I spent lots of time interacting with Sally and the others, but doing it from my circuits panel and without a real physical presence is... quite different from doing it 'in person'."

"And obviously, you don't realize when your comments can offend the one hearing them; here you are, talking about your 'new body', your 'senses', and how you have a 'real physical presence', in front of the fox who lost all those things!" Fiona growled while showing her robotic fist to Nicole. "I can use this to punch through a wall, but I can't feel either the pain or the satisfaction that comes from that... I can hear radio signals and see a fly at a one mile distance, but I can't smell perfume or enjoy a warm meal... I can stay 'online' forever,, as long as my power source is in good state and keeps running, but I can't remember what I dreamed last night because I have no dreams when I get 'turned off' so I can 'sleep'... seriously, I might be able to outrun most vehicles and punch my way out of any prison cell, but I feel trapped in my own body!" How do you think I feel about that?"

"I know how it feels, Fiona. More than anyone." Nicole replied in a calm tone, surprising Fiona. "That's how I used to live, remember?"

Fiona was taken back by Nicole's answer, that reminded her that the girl currently using her body used to be nothing but a computer program; an insanely powerful and quite intelligent one, with actual emotions, but still, just a computer program, incapable of feeling things an organic being takes for granted.

"Okay... you know how it feels... but you were 'born' to live that way: I wasn't. I was born a flesh and bone fox, and now I can't experimence all the things I used to do when I was... well, flesh and bone. And craziest thing is, the things I miss the most... are the simplest ones!" Fiona gave her version of a robotic sigh. "Taking a sip of water and feeling the cold liquid running down my throat... chewing on a piece of- fruit while the juice covers my tongue and I feel the flavor... just taking a deep breath and feel the air filling my lungs..."

"You know, there are virtual reality programs in my old systems at home... maybe you can get 'plugged' into them when your body is resting, so your virtual self can actually interact with an environment that gives you something close to sensations." Nicole offered, now fully understanding how Fiona felt; after being a real organic being for just a short time, Nicole knew she'd resent no longer being able to feel the sensations Fiona was missing at the time; she couldn't even imagine how it would be to feel them for a lifetime and suddenly being incapable of experiencing them.

"I tried it last night... it was good at first, but... the virtual reality has no scents, or flavors..."

"Heh, well, the virtual reality was designed by me when I was a computer program, so I obviously ignored how Scent and Flavor felt. Maybe now you can help me improve the programs, by using your own experience." Nicole interrupted Fiona, giving her a little smile. For the first time in what seemed to be ages, Fiona actually smiled back.

"Well, I guess that would make this situation a bit more... easier to withstand." Fiona conceded. Then, they heard Bunnie calling them, the rabbit finally done removing the last boulder, allowing them to enter the still unexplored sections of the old temple. Nicole nodded at Fiona and joined the rabbit while the fox stayed on her spot, still fulfilling the surveillance duties.

At the final location, Daemon, Sally and Maria had just arrived. Like the other temples, it was in ruins.

"Daemon, can you use your earth control to move around the debris?"Sally turned at the archangel, who was still carrying a very happy Maria.=====-

"Good idea, Princess." Daemon nodded at the female rodent, and, gently, let Maria down, and then used his mace to create what could be called a controlled earthquake, moving all the debris aside and cleaning up the temple, revealing a large hidden door.

"Hey, that was very good." Maria smiled at her boyfriend while Sally nodded in agreement and started approaching the door until everyone heard a very familiar, insane voice.

"Very good indeed. You already did most of my work."

"Robotnik?" Sally and the others looked around, still not seeing the scientist... until Daemon felt a weird air current.

"Watch out!" Daemon pushed Sally and Maria out of the way right before an invisible enemy hit him with enough strength to send the archangel through the closest wall.

"My newest invention; a stealth mode for my robots and myself." Robotnik cackled while Sally got a fighting stance and Maria dashed to help Daemon. "Good luck stopping us now."

"Maria, your wolf senses!" Sally said before getting punched herself by a powerful metallic fist. The impact stunned her but she remained sentient enough to morph her arm into a shield to protect herself from another punch.

Maria followed Sally's advice and closed her eyes, letting her ears and nose guide her through the fight. She inflated her fists and then morphed them into mallets to hit the two invisible robots trying to attack both her and Daemon. However, these robots seemed to be very well build, as the hits only delayed them without actually causing a real damage; obviously, Robotnik made them quite powerful, yet, luckily, whatever made them invisible also took enough of their energy that, apparently, they didn't have enough for a long ranged attack, like a laser gun or something like that... or so it seemed so far. Obviously, none of the heroes wanted to find out the hard way.

"Maria, Sally, flatten yourselves!" Daemon said to the elastic females as he finally stood up again. Sally and Maria did as Daemon said, becoming completely flat and lying in the ground like carpets. Daemon then summoned his air and water control, and covered the whole area with a thick fog... eliminating the robots' advantage, as their siluettes were now visible in the fog.

Daemon lost no time to attack the robots with his mace, while Sally and Maria turned into their muscular selves to start bashing them as well. Then, Sally noticed Robotnik was nowhere in sight, and, since the fog now would make him visible, it was obvious he was no longer around.

"He got through the hidden door... quick!" Sally morphed into a large ball and used one of Sonic's favorite attacks to get through one of the remaining robots while moving at the door.

Meanwhile, Robotnik was already at the summoning chamber that the door lead him to. The scientist placed several hand-sized devices around it, and then took out a scroll. The evil scientist read a chant, and then burned the scroll with a little fire lighter he took out from his pocket. The whole chamber suddenly filled up with a dark mist, and Robotnik activated the devices, all of them focusing and enhancing his mental energy to make it seem the summoning was made by several persons instead of just one, something necessary for this spell, and that, obviously, Robotnik couldn't achieve without the aid of his science since no other sentient being would cooperate with him in this plan of his.

By the time Sally and her team entered the chamber, it was too late, and the three of them were expelled by an invisible barrier. The mist then formed a humanoid form in front of Robotnik, the evil genius grinning with glee.

"WHO DARES TO AWAKEN ME?" A demonic voice boomed out of the mist.

"It was me, oh, great Evil One... Robotnik, the most incredible, wisest and gifted scientist of all ages. I have summoned you back to the mortal plane, and I'm ready to receive my fair reward." Robotnik smirked with confidence.

"YES.. YOU BROUGHT ME BACK... AND IN GRATITUDE, YOU'LL RECEIVE WHAT NO OTHER MORTAL WILL GET FROM ME." The mist started surrounding Robotnik, the scientist suddenly feeling his whole body getting stiff. "A QUICK DEATH."

"D-death... NO, WAIT, YOU CAN'T DO THIS TO..." Robotnik couldn't continue talking as his throat suddenly felt as if something was stuck inside, and his lungs stopped working. A moment later, Robotnik realized his huge mistake... and that he had realized this just too late.

Outside the chamber, Sally, Daemon and Maria gasped when the mist moved away from Robotnik, and revealed the scientist's fate; an almost instant yet still painful transformation. Now Robotnik would remain a rock statue, with his face frozen in a fearful expression, probably forever.

"Okay... despite what many of us have said in the past.. not even HE deserves that fate..." Sally said once she recovered (partially) from the surprise. She certainly disliked Robotnik, and that was a very polite way to say she despised the guy as much as 99% of Mobius' sentient beings, the remaining 1% consisting on kids who weren't old enough to know better... but even Sally had to admit that getting turned into a rock statue was a destiny worse than death.

"ENOUGH!" Daemon, enraged, attacked the invisible barrier with his mace, tearing it apart. Maria actually gave him some space; she had never seen him this angry... and considering the circumstances, the girl wolf couldn't blame him.

"An archangel... what an interesting way to receive me." The mist then started getting an anthro form; scary enough, it looked a lot like Daemon himself, even with the angel-like wings and armor, but with red and black tones instead of Daemon's black and silver. Plus, his fur was an intense red mixed with black.

"Yes, trying to keep this a family business." Daemon growled at the other wolf, who suddenly got an amused smirk.

"Daemon... how nice of you to come and receive your older brother. Always so considerate... no wonder you were always the favorite one back at home."

"Brother?" Maria wide opened her eyes in surprise.

"Guess any family can have a black sheep... or in this case, a very dark wolf." Sally got a defensive stance.

"Mandara, you know no angel, demon or whatever can appear in the mortal plane at full power. The consequences can be catastrophic." Daemon approached his brother, holding his mace and ready for battle if necessary.

"Yes; isn't it great? But... if you know that too... and you always follow the rules... Ah, little brother, you turned himself into a mortal? Just to be able to come here and receive me... I am flattered." Mandara then looked at both Sally and Maria. "And you even brought some female company. Nice detail."

"So... let me get this straight; you two are brothers, but one of you is an archangel and the other is a demon?" Maria frowned at this.

"Sadly, yes; my brother got corrupted by evilness a very long time ago, betraying everything sacred to all us angels." Daemon said through clenched teeth.

"Don't be so surprised, my dear ladies; after all, the demons, or at least the oldest, most powerful ones, are nothing but angels who got an attitude." Mandara grinned before showing his own weapon; a large, flaming golden staff. "And since my brother was nice enough to receive me... I guess now I must give him a nice gift."

"NO!" Daemon charged at Mandara but it was too late. The dark wolf hit the ground with his staff, and a powerful energy surge sent the heroes back; the energy didn't stop here, but, unknown to them, it was now traveling through the land and covering an area of several miles.

Back with Lupe and Amy, they were in the middle of their battle practice, and right now they were in a strength test, trying to overcome each other... when the energy hit them. Both females fell to the floor, in deep pain, and their bodies glowing until an intense light covered the room. The scene repeated in practically every sentient being in the energy's path.

Back at the temple, Sally was the first one to recover from the initial attack, and looked at Mandara using his staff to open himself a way out of the chamber.

"What did... you do..."

"Let's just say, I just gave my brother several toys; he needs a hobby." Mandara grinned before looking back at his brother, who was now standing up as well. "I know you like mortals, Daemon; let's see if you still like them when they have the powers to turn against you.. or to kill each other with ease, needing someone like you to save them from themselves."

Mandara stopped talking and changed back into his mist form before flying out of the chamber. Daemon lost no time to chase after him, but stopped instantly when noticing all the plants around the temple had transformed into huge, carnivorous monsters.

"Oh, Mandara, what have you done?" Daemon thought out loud before using his mace's air and earth powers to keep the plants at bay. If Mandara could affect plants this way, Daemon was now truly concerned about the possible effects of his powers in Mobius' inhabitants.

Daemon had good reasons to be concerned. Practically every non-sentient creature in the energy's path had mutated into monstrous shapes; the effect on sentient ones, namely, the Mobians, was apparently random, since many of them seemed to be unaffected, but others had started to mutate as well. The energy had actually reached the other two locations, but apparently this energy didn't affect those who already had powers, so Sonic (having super speed), Knuckles (super strength), and Nicole (elasticity) weren't mutated or injured, and same with Fiona (currently inside a cyber body) and Bunnie (due to her bionic parts).

Back with Lupe and Amy, the female wolf recovered conscience... and realized she was now using a blue and gold version of Amy's outfit. Lupe looked around and realized Amy wasn't around.

"Amy... Amy, where are you?" Lupe started yelling, getting Rotor and Tails' attention.

"Lupe, Amy, are you alright?" Tails asked; being a two-tailed fox, he was technically a mutant, so he wasn't affected either.

"I can't find Amy... what about you guys?" Lupe turned at them.

"Tails said something about a weird energy covering everything... I wasn't aware at that time because I was working at the inner levels of the dome, where we keep the most delicate circuitry, and that area is very well isolated." Rotor explained. "And why are you wearing Amy..."

"Rotor, I'm here!" Lupe said... with Amy's voice, while her eyes started twitching. Even weirder, her eyes had turned pink.

"Lupe, how do you..." Tails got interrupted by 'Lupe'.

"Lupe? Tails, it's me, Amy... and where's Lupe?" The wolf approached Tails and looked down at him. "And why you are so small now?"

"_Amy, I'm here!" '_Lupe' turned around when hearing a familiar voice.

"Hey, I hear Lupe! But... where is she..." Then, the wolf's eyes twitched again and changed back to their normal blue color.

"Lupe?" Rotor approached her, the walrus now visibly nervous.

"I... Rotor... Amy is inside my head!" Lupe now talked with her normal voice. "I can even hear her!"

'_Lupe? Lupe, hello? Where are you... and where am I?' _Amy talked inside Lupe's head.

"Tails... get me a mirror... or something I can see my reflection in." Lupe said to the young fox. Tails then flew away and returned with a bright, reflective piece of metal. Lupe grabbed it and looked at herself in detail, sighing and then closing her eyes.

"Amy... you're inside my body... I'm opening my eyes now... and I'll let you take control... I hope this works." Lupe said between deep breaths. When she opened her eyes again, they were back to pink.

"Oh, my..." The wolf now had Amy's voice and body language; she gasped while looking at herself, saying 'No-no-no' over and over again.

"I... I can't have this body! Lupe is married; I like Lobo as a friend but I don't wanna be his wife!" Amy yelled. "And... Sonic isn't going to like me in this body... he barely likes me in my normal one! On the other hand, I look fantastic... BUT STILL!"

'_I'm not exactly thrilled about this either, Amy... we'll need to work on something." _From the inside of their shared mind, Lupe tried to calm down the pink hedgehog. '_If it makes you feel better... I'm just as scared as yourself.'_

"Oh, trust me, 'scared' isn't even close enough to describe how I feel right now!" Amy groaned while pacing around, Tails and Rotor doing their best to try calming her down.

"I've heard about multiple personalities, but this is too much." Rotor groaned.

"Very funny, Rotor! Nothing can be worse than this!" Amy frowned before an alarm was heard. Tails went to check the closest monitor and gasped.

"It seems... we're being attacked by the grass... And by 'grass', I mean a green, plant monster with fangs the size of blades." Tails gulped.

"I had to open my mouth." Amy sighed before twitching her eyes and changing them back to blue.

"Guess we now have to solve this problem until we find out what happened. And I'm almost sure it's somehow connected to Robotnik's evil summoning." Lupe said while walking to grab Amy's hammer. "Right now... it's hammertime."

'_Don't use my jokes, please.' _Amy moaned yet agreed on cooperating, and less than one minute later, she and Lupe were outside Knotville beating up the monster, the first of many to come.


	15. Fused and Confused

Chapter 15 - Fused and Confused

"Sally, behind you!" Maria, currently tying up a van-sized beetle with her own body, yelled at Sally, pointing at a gigantic wasp approaching from behind; Sally was too busy fighting another wasp to notice.

"Thanks!" Sally changed into her muscular self, grabbed the wasp by the sting, and slammed it against the wasp behind her. "Daemon, we need more cold here!"

"I can't do that without freezing the both of you!" Daemon, flying over them, was using his elemental powers to create a very cold wind; this strategy was keeping the carnivorous plants away , but it wasn't cold enough to scare away the mutated insects, and he couldn't use his powers at full force without risking hurting Maria and Sally.

They had been fighting like this for almost one hour now. Mandara's powers had caused extensive mutation in about every creature and plant in a large area, and even worse, the ones closer to the temple were considerably more aggressive than the others, meaning several of these mutants were now ganging on the heroes.

"We can't continue fighting like this!" Sally then looked up at Daemon. "Daemon, give Maria and I some time to leave this place and find some shelter, and then bring a new Ice Age! Insects hibernate or hide during winter, and plants hate cold; a good blizzard will keep them under control until we can return them to normal!"

"Okay, but I'm not doing it until I am sure you two are safe!" Daemon gave both Sally and Maria a nod, and both elastic females nodded back before doing it to each other. Then, they morphed into balls and literally bounced away. Since the three of them had communicators, they'd be able to call Daemon and tell when he could produce an instantaneous winter.

"Can't we just transform our hands into wings and fly?" Maria asked Sally as they continued bouncing.

"Take a look up!" Sally looked up, and Maria did as well, instantly spotting hundreds of flying insects, some of them larger than Dulcy the dragon. "We wouldn't make it through all those bugs! At least here on land we can fight full force."

"Yes... but it seems we just ran into an ant hill!" Maria stopped bouncing and morphed back to normal, barely dodging two ants trying to bite her; each insect was larger than a pitbull.

Sally stopped as well, and realized they wouldn't be able to just bounce over the ants; as Maria said, Mandara's powers had mutated a whole ant colony, and now they were surrounded by a literal insect army that covered several hundred feet around them.

The two elastic females started fighting their way through the ants; even if they were smaller than the wasps or the beetle, the ants were still quite strong, not to mention that, for each ant that Sally or Maria defeated, 20 more took its place; Sally knew that ants used this very same strategy to defeat and kill insects much larger than themselves, like grasshoppers and beetles, and sometimes even larger animals, like snakes and tarantulas.

"Sally, let's try the traditional way!" Maria made her legs and feet grow to gigantic size and started stomping the ants; Sally did the same, and for a moment they had the edge, but soon the ants started climbing through the legs and biting them: even with their rubber bodies standing a lot more than normal ones, they were still resenting the bites from dozens of ants.

"Hey, you heard that?" Maria, having wolf senses, heard something and turned back while still fighting the ants.

"What, more ants coming for dinner?" Sally asked while morphing her hands into mallets to hit the ants climbing up through her legs.

"No... it's an engine... no, a motor!"

Almost instantly, a huge tank-like vehicle broke through several huge, mutant plants, and made its way through the ants. Sally recognized it as one of Tails' new battle vehicles; it was still half-build when Sally left with the others... but then again, Tails now had Rotor to help him finish the invention, and it was obviously functional by now.

"Sally, Maria, hang on, we're coming!" Tails' voice was heard through the vehicles' speakers. Unfortunately, at that moment, a large number of ants covered the tank, and despite the vehicle's power, the ants' combined might was enough to slow it down. Then, a hatchet opened and Lupe, holding Amy's mallet and wearing a dress that looked like the pink hedgehog's one but blue colored with gold trims, jumped out of the tank to start smashing the insects.

"Mom!" Maria exclaimed in happiness before noticing something. "Amy designed a dress for you?"

"Long story!" Maria was even more surprised when her mother talked with Amy's voice. Also, both Maria and Sally noticed Lupe was using the mallet like an expert; even if Lupe was extremely good at using melee weaponry, nobody would be this good without lots of previous practice. The elastic females couldn't make more questions since they were just too busy battling the rest of the ants.

"Hold your breath!" Now Lupe was talking with her normal voice again, and a moment later she jumped over several ants and landed next to Sally and Maria, still barking orders out loud. "And cover me, please! Rotor, now!"

Sally and Maria obeyed, turning themselves into a huge dome (each female forming half of it) to cover Lupe. Then, inside the tank, Rotor pressed a button that unleashed a massive amount of tear gas around the vehicle. This knocked out several ants while scaring away the rest; then, Sally and Maria morphed back to normal, the gas already dissipating so it wasn't that hard to stand.

"Nice save." Sally commented. "Heh, and cool outfit, Lupe; Amy convinced you to try a new style?"

"You like my style? Thanks, Sally!" The princess wide opened her eyes when Lupe not just talked like Amy but also changed her eyes' color to a bright pink; then, the eyes changed back to Lupe's normal blue, and she talked with her normal voice. "Sally, it's both Amy and I in this body! Whatever changed these bugs into monsters well... it fused us!"

"FUSED?" Maria gasped. "You mean, like when I absorb all my clones to reform my normal self?"

"Yes... and now Amy and I share our body, including the brain... When she's in charge, I can still see what's going on, but I am not the one moving the body, unless Amy allows me to do it again. The same happens to her when I'm the one in charge." Lupe groaned before letting Amy control the body again. "In other words... uh... heh... guess you're my daughter too."

"Oh, I'm so going to hurt Mandara for this." Maria groaned while rubbing her temples.

"We'll discuss this later. Right now, we must go to a safe place so Daemon can continue with the plan." Sally said to the others; after giving everyone a quick summary of what Daemon was going to do to stop the mutants, she used the communicators in the tank to contact Daemon.

"Are you sure the tank will protect us from a blizzard?" Sally asked Tails while the young fox secured the tank.

"Rotor helped me build up this thing, and he's a walrus." Tails pointed at his friend.

"Yes; and everything I build up is designed to stand polar temperatures." Rotor added.

"Is it also designed to stand a Goliath Scarab the size of a house?" Amy, gulping, pointed outside, having spotted said insect through the tank's window.

Before anyone could react, the gigantic scarab attacked the tank, obviously thinking the tank was another scarab invading his territory. The bug was so strong it shook the tank as a dog playing with a bone, making things very uncomfortable inside the tank; Sally and Maria couldn't get out to fight it because they were too busy transforming into a rubber cushion to protect everyone, and everyone was colliding with each other so much that Lupe/Amy, the only other who would stand a chance against the insect, couldn't get out of the tank.

"NOW I WISH WE COULD HAVE MORE TIME TO BUILD THIS TANK!" Tails yelped. Due to the urgency of finishing up the tank, he and Rotor couldn't finish the weaponry system.

"AT LEAST YOU HAD ENOUGH TIME TO ADD THE COMMUNICATOR!" Sally yelled back. "AND I DIDN'T JUST CALL DAEMON!"

No more than two seconds after Sally said this, the scarab stopped attacking the tank, as it was hit from multiple angles by a certain blue blur.

"Hey, Buggy Boy, wanna try playing with a moving target?" Sonic stood on top of the scarab, mocking him and then stomping the bug's exoskeleton at super speed. The scarab moved away from the tank, shaking his body to try getting rid of his attacker; Sonic simply grinned and got a hold on the creature's horn-like appendages.

"YEEEHAW! Ride him, Cowboy!" Sonic cheered for himself.

"Ah, it takes so little to make him happy." Sally grinned while she and the others recovered from the attack, and then the princess looked up, noticing black storm clouds. "Daemon is ready; call Sonic in!"

"Got it!" Tails activated the speakers. "Sonic, cut the rodeo and get in!"

Rotor opened the tank's hatchet and, when Sonic noticed, he just shrugged and looked back at the annoyed scarab.

"Too bad you don't have your winter clothing... then again, you'd need a super extra-extra-extra-large size." Sonic chuckled while dodging another attack, and rushed inside the tank. Rotor closed it, and a few moments later, the blizzard started; at first it was a light snowing, but it soon became a powerful, icy wind that covered the whole place with snow in a matter of seconds. The scarab soon became a large, immobile statue, just like all the mutant plants and any insect unlucky enough to be unsheltered at the moment.

"Wow... your boyfriend don't get things half-done, uh?" Sonic grinned at Maria before looking at Lupe. "Hey, nice dress..."

"You were great, Sonic!" The blue hedgehog froze when 'Lupe', with Amy's voice, hugged him and giggled like a schoolgirl. It was at that moment when he noticed her pink eyes.

"AMY, CUT THAT!" Sally snapped. Instantly, Amy stopped being in control and Lupe realized what she was doing. The wolf yelped and released Sonic in a hurry.

"Sonic, I'm so sorry... just... urgh, Amy, I'm a married woman! Never do that again!" Lupe growled before switching back to Amy. "I forgot for a moment; oh, I'm so sorry... oh, my, I just realized... LUPE, I HOPE YOU AND LOBO DON'T HAVE ANY ROMANTIC EVENING PLANNING ANY TIME SOON!" Lupe got back in control. "No, we don't, and... oh, you're so right! This is huge! Oh, I feel a headache coming..." Amy returned. "You're telling me? I'm already suffering it!"

Sonic's right eye started twitching.

"Okaaaaay... since we'll be trapped in here for a while until Daemon finishes giving us our very own Christmas in July... can someone explain me what's going on with Lupe?"

"And Amy." Sally added, sighing, before morphing one of her hands into a chair. "Take a seat, Sonic; this will take a while... and somebody please contact Bunnie's team and see if they're fine. I contacted them too, but I don't know if they found a shelter."

Tails nodded and contacted the 'all females team'; luckily, they had enough time to find a good cover, plus Bunnie's bionics and Fiona's new robotic body were resistant enough to cold, so the only one who really needed some protection was Nicole, and found it when the trio improvised a shelter with the old temple's ruins.

A while later, everyone was back at Knothole. While most of the group was focusing on the main problem at hand, Mandara, Lobo was at a separate room talking with Lupe... and of course, with Amy.

"This... is bad." Lobo sighed. "So, I can't even touch my wife because, with Amy in there, I feel as if I were cheating."

"Maybe Amy can... go to sleep or something while we're together." Lupe suggested before her eyes changed to pink again. "No way! You two would 'wake me up'... and I love Sonic, even if sometimes it seems he'll never notice me as dating material. I would freak out if I suddenly 'open my eyes' and find Lobo kissing me."

"Okay, this is confusing." Lobo sighed while getting a thoughtful expression. "Well... this is pretty much like when Maria fuses all her clones back into one... maybe we can find a way to 'defuse' the both of you."

"That might work, I mean, separating ourselves just like when Maria creates her clones... but I... well, 'we'... would need elastic powers in order to do that." Amy said before switching back to Lupe. "And elastic powers aren't exactly easy to get."

"Maybe we can ask Fiona. I mean, she found a way." Lobo suggested.

"Guess that's our best option so far." Lupe sighed sadly. "Sorry, Lobo, but... we'll need to be a bit... apart until Amy and I can get separated." The wolf was replaced by the hedgehog. "Yes, please! I got a little... glimpse of your memories... and... the things you two do..." Amy cringed and got a very shocked face. Lupe got control again and blushed while Lobo got an uncomfortable expression.

"I still wonder why you two are the only ones who got fused." Lobo changed topics. "Back at our village, all the wolves only got a very big headache."

"Our village is very far away from the spot Mandara's energy emerged, even further than Knothole." Lupe guessed. "Besides, Amy and I were in very close proximity when the energy covered us... wonder who else got affected besides the insects and the plants."

Back with the main team, everyone was discussing what to do next. Daemon's improvised winter would cool down (no pun intended) most of the mutants, but it was a temporary solution, and it wouldn't be a good idea to let it last for long or they'd risk ruining the environment.

"This is another fine mess Robuttnik's got us into." Sonic groaned but then sighed. "I can't believe Old Robby is gone... he's the guy I loved to hate! And now we have an even bigger bad guy without the regular laugh at his expenses."

"Yes... right now, robots and death traps sound better than mutated creatures and magical monsters." Sally groaned. "And now, we need a way to track down Mandara and then capture him, and this time for good."

"I still don't how Mandara is your brother." Maria said to Daemon.

"Being both angels, or archangel and former one, it's just logical; we're all related." Daemon sighed. "And since I'm one of Mandara's closest relatives, I am among the ones who knows him the best... unfortunately, most of my knowledge of him will help me face the guy in a fight, but not enough to find him."

"Well, now that Mandara is free, we can use your power's signature waves to create a detector/tracker to find him." Tails suggested, actually thrilled about mixing magic and science.

At that moment, Lobo and Lupe/Amy joined the group.

"We might have an idea to separate Lupe and Amy; if they get elastic powers, they might be able to separate themselves just like Maria does with her clones." Lobo informed before turning at Fiona. "You still have some of whatever you used to get the powers?"

"Yes, I have Robotnik's research notes and the invention's prototype... my, getting elastic powers is becoming a trend around here." Fiona rolled her robotic eyes.

"If Fiona was able to do this to herself with limited resources and without being scientific herself, then we would be able to create our own Elastomatic." Nicole pointed. "And considering I can use her body's shape-shifting to turn myself into a duplicate of my old lynx's self, then Amy, after separating herself from Lupe, would be able to shape-shift into a perfect copy of her old body... except for the color; she would be gray instead of pink."

"I can always dye my fur." Amy chuckled.

"Good... then, Tails, you, Daemon and I will start working on the detector, while Rotor goes with Fiona and a small group to gather Fiona's notes and machinery." Sally did her usual coordinating work. Maria offered to stay with her mother and Amy to start teaching them how to do the cloning trick, at least in theory. Less than 20 minutes later, Courage was in the middle of a sparring match with Lupe/Amy, the combatants using 'practice mallets' as weapons.

"Hey, these mallets are fun." Courage chuckled while dodging an attack. "Sometimes it's cool to use a weapon instead of making one with my fists."

"Heh, yeah, this is great." Amy grinned before Lupe took control again. "And this is helping us... how?"

"To show you the advantages of cloning, and how each of us has a separate personality. You two will eventually learn to do the same." Wisdom explained.

"Yes, it will be nice to have more elastic girls around." Soul giggled.

"Plus, Mom and Dad will have lots of fun. Heh, the things Mom is gonna be able to do with elasticity..." Heart chuckled.

"HEART!" Everyone paused to frown at Heart.

"You girls are soooooo easy to tease." Heart grinned.

"Don't make me ground you, Young Lady." Amy frowned before chuckling. "Wow, so this is how parents feel when they ground their kids... it's quite cool."

"No offense, Amy, but allow my mom to get in control when those... comments are necessary." Wisdom pointed out.

"Yeah, hearing Mom grounding us with your voice is kinda creepy." Courage groaned before she and Lupe/Amy got back to sparring.

Meanwhile, at Fiona's place, the fox, Nicole, Rotor and Sonic were ready to get all the machinery inside the tank; usually, Sonic would be the one carrying the pieces, but there were too many and some were delicate pieces, so the tank was the best option. Plus, some of the spare parts were heavy, so Fiona's robotic strength and Nicole's muscular transformation were more suited to carry them.

"Seriously, Fiona, how did you manage to transport all this?" Rotor commented while the girls placed some pieces inside the tank.

"It took me months; I even had to steal one of Robotnik's builder-bots and reprogram it to help me with the heaviest pieces... and then I had to disarm the robot to get some parts I needed." Fiona said while giving one last look to her old place. "I kinda liked it here. Private, nice, not far from Robotnik's old base where I could salvage stuff I needed..."

"Ah, yeah... how I destroyed that one? A bomb in the reactor, overheating one of Robby's old weapons..." Sonic rubbed his chin in thought while grinning.

"You ran at super speed around it, created a mini-tornado, and pretty much made the whole building to explode from the inside out." Nicole informed the hedgehog. "For someone with no advanced formal education, you can come with incredibly creative ways to use your speed."

"Sonic's my name, speed's my game." Sonic chuckled. "I'll go give a last look inside in case we forgot something."

"At this point, I think the only thing left is my old toothbrush." Fiona groaned yet this didn't stop Sonic from rushing inside. Less than 3 seconds later, Sonic dashed outside, visibly worried.

"Fiona, you had someone visiting you these days?" Sonic said to the robotic fox.

"Of course not; this place was convenient to me but not much for others." Fiona gave him a puzzled look.

"Then guess you had an uninvited guest here after you went to Knothole." Sonic pointed at the lair's entrance, and a moment later a mutant emerged from it; it was obvious it was a female, a bat, but this one looked very muscular and much bigger than normal, plus having a feral expression, large claws and two pairs of wings... and an outfit everyone recognized.

"ROUGE?" The foursome chorused.

A second later, the bat was charging at them; and it was more than obvious she was hungry.

Fiona morphed her robotic hands to get a huge shield in her left arm and a gigantic fist in the right one. Fiona resisted Rouge's attack with the shield and then tried to punch her, but Rouge caught the fist and threw Fiona over her shoulder. Nicole morphed into a net and Sonic tried to grab Rouge, but the bat flew up to avoid them; having 4 wings and being much stronger than before, Rouge could fly a lot faster.

"Nicole, follow my lead!" Sonic did his rolling attack to charge at Rouge; Nicole did the same after morphing into a ball, both the elastic female and the hedgehog ricocheting around to gain power and speed. Rouge used her wings as shields, protecting herself quite well.

In the meantime, Fiona morphed her back into jet wings, and charged at Rouge from behind while the bat was busy fighting Sonic and Nicole. The bat, however, replied with a back kick that sent Fiona down.

"How can she know where all the attacks are coming from? Does she have a radar or something?" Fiona groaned before wide-opening her eyes in realization. "What am I saying? SHE'S A BAT! SHE HAS A RADAR!"

"A very logical guess, and probably accurate as well." Nicole, now using her powers to get bat-like wings, tried fighting Rouge in mid-air, doing well until Rouge flapped hard enough to create a hurricane-like wind and send Nicole back.

"Nicole, give me some space!" Rouge looked down at Sonic as he talked to his friend. Then, the blue hedgehog started running in circles right under Rouge, creating a small tornado. This kept Rouge busy but her flight was now so powerful she could stand the winds quite well.

"I have an idea!" Rotor approached Fiona and whispered a quick plan to her.

"Good thinking; Nicole, get ready to catch her!" Fiona morphed her hands into plane-like turbines, and then activated them full force, creating an extremely loud noise. "Super hearing equals high sensitivity to noise!"

Rouge escaped Sonic's tornado and was about to attack him when the turbines' noise hit her full force. Rouge roared in deep pain and covered her ears while doing her best to keep flying. Nicole then morphed into her muscular self and jumped at Rouge's level, hitting the bat with mallet-shaped fists and making her to crash-land. Rouge tried to stand up but Sonic tied her up at super speed by using some extra ropes Rotor brought to secure the machinery they were transporting. The bat tried to break free but Fiona continued with the noise, not letting Rouge to use her newfound mutant strength, and then Nicole finally knocked her out with a kick from her oversized foot right in the chin.

"Okay... after seeing this, Amy and Lupe getting fused suddenly doesn't sound so bad." Sonic sighed at the view of their recurrent ally/opponent. "She probably got the full charge of Mandara's powers."

"We can't leave her here; she can hurt someone if going around by her own." Rotor pointed. "And she's so strong we can't just trap her."

"Guess we're bringing her home with us." Nicole sighed while carrying Rouge inside.

"Heh, wonder if Sally will let us conserve her; maybe if we say she followed us home." Sonic half-joked. "Talking about going shopping and getting stuff off the list."

"Just telling, I'm not cleaning up her mess. One of you will need to walk her or at least teach her to use a litter box." Fiona frowned while entering the tank.

Rotor sighed while mentally thinking about possible ways to change Rouge back to normal, or at least get her back to rationality.


	16. An Elastic Mother and Daughter Bonding

Chapter 16 - An Elastic Mother and Daughter Bonding

"Okay... how about we make her a vegetarian?" Sonic said to Knuckles as they carried some food to a special cell.

"Sonic, most bats, as ferals, feed on insects. We can't make her eat fruits, at least not until she gets some control back." Knuckles groaned as they finally heard the prisoner's growling.

Rouge was currently being held in one of the most secured cells; it was designed to resist even super strong punches, like those from Knuckles, but it wasn't big enough for a creature, like Feral Rouge's size, especially considering she was a flying being. Knuckles and Sonic were 'volunteered' to feed her, since, obviously, they weren't scientists or magicians and therefore wouldn't be working at solving either Mandara's situation or the Lupe/Amy fusion, plus they were among the most physically powerful of the group, so they could handle Rouge if she managed to break free.

Knuckles opened a little gate and Sonic, using his speed, literally dropped the food inside in the blink of an eye. Rouge lost no time to 'attack' her meal, consisting on a huge sack filled up with bugs; thanks to the current size of most insects these days, and the fact most of them were hibernating, it wasn't that hard to find or hold them. Rouge lost no time and ate the two beetles, each one the size of a watermelon, with feral appetite.

"Whoa... and she used to complain when watching me getting mustard all over me when eating chili dogs." Sonic said while he and Knuckles watched her eating. "This is like a train collision; it's horrible but I can't stop watching."

"Maybe we should just drop her outside; she'd solve the insects trouble in no time." Knuckles groaned. "I always had problems with this bat gal, but I never wanted something this bad to happen to her."

"Nobody wanted." Sonic sighed while he and Knuckles finally started walking away. "And I can't believe I'm saying this... but watching her eating gave me an appetite too. Want some chili dogs?"

"Sometimes I worry about you." Knuckles groaned while shaking his head.

"Oh, well, more for me." Sonic shrugged.

Meanwhile, Amy/Lupe were in the middle of a session with Maria, the elastic wolf teaching them how to relax their muscles and clear their minds, something they'd need to master in order to separate when finally getting elasticity powers.

"I admit, this is kinda likable... very relaxing..." Lupe smiled before her eyes changed to pink. "And very boring! Can't we hurry the whole thing up?"

"Amy, it took me awhile to get this done the right way. We can't wait for you and my mom to develop the cloning ability at a normal, slow pace, since we'll surely need the assistance of both of you to fight Mandara, so it's better if you already know the basics of the cloning procedure before actually getting the power." Maria explained. Amy sighed and her eyes changed back to blue.

"Yes, Amy, it's like when you learn to drive before actually getting behind a vehicle's wheel." Lupe talked to her 'shared' personality before Amy took control again. "I get that, but I wish this was a bit faster. I don't mind relaxing a bit, but doing all this yoga-like thing is getting on my nerves."

"Uh... excuse me, but I thought you two could talk to each other within your mind, without doing the whole 'personality switch' thing." Maria pointed out.

"Yes, we can, but this is something we both want you to hear too. Besides, it might be a bit 'rude' if we stay silent while having an 'inner conversation' and there's someone with us waiting for a reply." Amy shrugged before changing back to Lupe. "Okay, Maria, we're ready to continue."

Maria smiled at this and continued with the lesson; as Amy pointed out, it wasn't much different from a yoga class, teaching breathing exercises and meditation techniques. Thanks to her Wisdom clone learning a lot about this when Maria separated herself into her 4 personalities, the young wolf was more than ready to teach Lupe/Amy, as practicing these lessons had also made Maria a lot more proficient at cloning herself with a minor effort.

"Okay, we're ready now." Tails interrupted the lesson, as the young fox approached the two (three?) females. "We already tested the Elastomatic on some plants and on the bugs we got for Rouge's dinner, and it seems to be working fine."

"Elastic bugs... now we're giving Rouge her own chewing gum?" Amy joked.

"Not really; we also tested the 'reversing' effect, and it works perfectly as well." Tails replied. The fox and the other scientists had decided to add a 'reversal' to the Elastomatic, to change the elastic beings back to normal; it wouldn't be that useful against someone who has already been an elastic creature for an extended period of time, but it was a good option in case they had to fight another elastic creature. If they have had this option a few days ago, they wouldn't have needed to transfer Fiona's mind to a computer chip to imprison her; they could just have used the reversal to eliminate the powers and treat her like a normal prisoner.

"Okay, it's time." Maria said to Lupe/Amy, who nodded at her and then they all went back to the lab, where the Elastomatic was already set up. The non-scientists, like Daemon and Lobo, stood a few feet apart from the rest of the group, to watch without interfering.

"We calibrated the machine to work on a wolf-sized creature. Also, Daemon used his elemental powers to supercharge our generators so we have more than enough energy to make this work." Sally informed Lupe/Amy while getting the wolf/hedgehog in front of the Elastomatic.

"Got it." Lupe nodded at Sally before Amy took control again. "You're not going to French Fry us, right?"

"I won't lie to you; the transformation isn't exactly painless. However, we had improved Robotnik's original design, so it will not be as 'uncomfortable' as it was for Maria, Fiona or myself." Sally informed them.

"Yes, and it will be very different from my experience when I got transferred inside Fiona's body." Nicole added.

"Or when I got all cyber-minded." Fiona, in her robotic body, rolled her eyes.

"We're ready now. Everyone who isn't getting a charge of this, please, out of the fire range." Rotor informed. Everyone moved away from Lupe/Amy, and Lobo gave his wife a supportive smile... once he was sure Lupe was the one in charge of the body at that moment.

Sally then fired the beam; Lupe/Amy grunted in pain, but it wasn't as bad as she/they expected; like Sally said, the Elastomatic was now a lot more precise than before, and the procedure was considerably less painful. The whole process lasted around 1 minute, with Sally stopping the beam when noticing Lupe/Amy's arms were starting to elongate.

"And... success!" Sally grinned while the others approached Lupe/Amy.

"This feels... incredible." Lupe said in amazement while looking at her stretching arms, that were now as long as her whole body. Amy then took charge. "Oh, yeah! I love this. Wait, let me try something..."

Amy morphed her arms, making them more muscular while still keeping them long, and then changed her fists into gigantic mallets.

"Told you she'd do that." Sonic, grinning, whispered at Tails.

"Okay, Mom, Amy, practice time!" Lupe/Amy turned to see Maria already doing a series of morphing/stretching moves. Lupe/Amy started mimicking her, and soon found themselves enjoying it a lot.

After an hour or so of practicing, Sally and the other elastic females decided Lupe/Amy were ready to try the separation. The new elastic female(s) agreed, and started doing the relaxing and focusing training to melt her/themselves into a semi-liquid state. Then, the resulting paste separated into 2 large masses, and started morphing into anthro forms. One minute later, the masses got distinctive colors; one was a mix of gray, blue and gold, while the other was a mix of pink and white, and then, they finally got their definitive shapes; Lupe in a blue and gold elastic suit, and Amy into a pink and white one. Due to Amy/Lupe's outfit getting transformed along with them, it got the distinctive elastic suit's design/characteristics from the ray as well.

"Lupe..." Lobo talked to his wife, who immediately smiled at him.

"Yes. It's me, and nobody else." Lupe and Lobo embraced almost instantly whille Lupe wrapped her elongated , arms around Lobo and started kissing with a passion.

"Okay, we didn't need to see that." Maria joked while Amy looked at herself in amazement.

"Mmm... my own body, superpowers, a new suit... I like this deal." Amy giggled while she stretched her entire body. Then, the pink hedgehog, grinning, morphed into a big, more mature and very sexy version of herself, turning at Sonic when ending. "You like it, Sonic?"

"Uh... eh... how did you morph like THAT so well in your first attempt?" Sonic asked, gulping a bit; he remembered the other elastic females took some time to accomplish this kind of transformation.

"Oh, in my mind, I've always looked like this when I'm with you." Amy admitted.

"Okaaaaay... I think we should... move on with the program..." Sally interrupted the very uncomfortable moment (well, it wasn't for Amy), clearing her throat to get Lupe and Lobo's attention, as the wolf couple was now getting a bit too loving to be in public.

"Y-yes, you're right, Sally." Lupe stopped making out with Lobo, yet still hugging him. "I think Maria can help me with my training."

"And Sally and I can work with Amy." Nicole volunteered. Amy sighed and changed back to normal, nodding.

A while later, Maria and Lupe were in ball shape, bouncing around and having a good time, yet Maria showing Lupe how their wolf senses and balance helped them to not getting lost or confused while bouncing and hitting themselves against walls and floors. Lupe found herself doing a very good job at this, thanks to her training as a warrior and tracker. After a while of practicing how to use this shape in an actual fight, with Lobo setting the practice dummies that Maria and Lupe could smash themselves against, Maria suggested trying the cloning trick.

"Okay, Mom, remember what you did with Amy to separate yourselves; this is pretty much the same thing, but the difference, of course, is that you'll need to separate your own mind instead of separating yourself from another one's." Maria explained Lupe. "You might need to concentrate on some aspect of your personality to give each clone a literal piece of your mind."

"Got it... okay, here goes." Lupe took some deep breaths and started thinking about herself and whatever was her definition of herself. Lupe usually saw herself as a warrior, but she also knew she was a lot more; a friend, a leader, a lover, a mother... This actually made the trick a bit harder since Lupe didn't want to transform herself into a multitude of clones, just a few ones with well defined personalities, like Maria's. Then, Lupe decided to try comparing her mind with her daughter's, and make her personalities fit with the same ones Maria's clones had.

After a few minutes, Lupe changed into her semi - liquid plastic form, and then started separating into 2 entities, pretty much like when she and Amy separated themselves; however, Maria was surprised that Lupe couldn't shape, or it seemed she couldn't, into more than 2 clones. The now completely separated clones started morphing themselves into well defined wolves, both in a blue and gold outfit, but one was considerably larger and more muscular than the other, plus getting an outfit that looked a lot like Maria's Courage clone but with shorter boots and gloves, plus her abdomen was exposed, showing a very muscular, well defined build. The smaller clone was morphing into a more feminine wolf, with a long dress, similar to Maria's Soul clone, but, again, with shorter gloves. Maria noticed that the larger clone's body was getting more muscular, to the point she would look like a larger, older version of Courage, while the smaller clone's started changing her hairdo; while the larger one's looked mostly the same as her mother's normal hairdo, the smaller clone's was considerably longer, flowing freely over her shoulders, and going down until covering her whole back.

"Okay... this seems to be working." Maria approached the clones once it seemed they had finished forming themselves. The smaller clone then gave her a very nice, motherly smile, very similar to Lupe's usual smile when congratulating her children.

"You taught us quite well, Maria." The shorter clone then gave her a little yet quite harm hug. Then, the larger clone approached them and got the pair in a quite tight embrace.

"Hahahaha... well, what did you expect? She's our daughter after all." The larger clone actually lifted both Maria and the smaller one while hugging them. Luckily, due to their own elastic bodies, they didn't feel any pain, but this clone's grip was so strong it would probably suffocate any non-elastic person without enough stamina or strength.

"Heh, good... now, put us down, can you?" Maria grinned at Lupe's large clone, who realized what she was doing and obeyed.

"Sorry, I got overexcited." The larger clone said before getting a thoughtful expression. "But why'd we only separated into 2 clones and not 4, like you do?"

"Well..." the other clone thought for a moment before coming up with her own theory. "I guess that, since Lupe is older than Maria, her personality is more complex, and the different sides of her own mind have a closer, tighter bond among themselves, so... the both of us would have several aspects of her personality in ourselves."

"Mmm... that would explain why you're talking like my Wisdom clone even if you are dressed up like Soul." Maria pointed out before looking at the other clone. "You're obviously like Courage, but you seem to be a bit more... well, cheerful."

"Heh, maybe I'm a mix of Lupe's own Courage and Heart sides." The clone chuckled before grinning a bit. "Guess that explanation works... so, my name wouldn't be anything like Courage or Heart since I'm a mix of them both instead of one being my dominating side."

"True that. Maybe you're what people call a Boisterous Bruiser." Maria chuckled. "You want that name, Bruiser?"

"Nah... it's a good second option, but... well, a Boisterous Bruiser is usually a warrior, so... yeah, I like Warrior."

"I like that one." The other clone smiled. "What would be my name then?"

"Well, you look like the typical housewife to me." Warrior grinned. "How about, Housy?"

"No offense, but no... but... you might have the right idea... I like... Homely or Motherly."

"Homely sounds a bit better." Maria suggested, making both clones to nod in agreement. "Okay, now that you two have names, guess we can start training the both of you, to see which attacks and moves fit each personality the best."

"Good thinking; may I suggest you cloning yourself, Maria, so we can work with all our 'daughters'?" Homely asked Maria, the younger wolf nodding and doing it after a few moments.

The next hour was pretty much a combination of wild party and serious training. Warrior and Courage spent time competing with each other in several strength and skill tests, with Heart playing referee/cheerleader/fangirl with them both, at times interrupting the competitions to prank them, making the muscular females to chase her around the place; this was also a good training as the 3 clones would use several shapes and tricks through the chase. Meanwhile, Wisdom and Soul started showing Homely how to use her powers in less violent ways yet still making it clear that, at times, she'd need to fight seriously, especially when the time came to face Mandara again.

After a while of this, the 'practice' was interrupted by Lobo, who decided to take a look at the training. The moment he appeared in the room, he froze on the spot and had to remind himself that his daughter(s) was(were) present to stop himself from drooling over Lupe's two clones. Warrior and Homely reacted as well when they finally saw him.

"Lobo, Dear Husband, it's such a delight to see you." Homely talked to him in a formal yet still very loving way, with a smile and stare that would melt any straight guy's heart.

"What she said, Big Hunk of Wolf!" Warrior was much more direct, pretty much pouncing on top of Lobo, tackling him down; Lobo then looked up at Warrior, who was keeping him in a pin and grinning at him in a very aggressively flirty way; Lobo blushed, realizing this was the very same way Lupe looked at him when feeling specially passionate.

"Warrior's the name, and Battle and Love are my game. Wanna 'fight' me a few rounds, Lover Boy?" Warrior moved her face closer to Lobo's, the male almost responding to her proposition until he remembered they weren't alone. Homely, blushing intensely, was next to them, and Maria's clones were having their own reactions; Soul was covering her eyes, Wisdom was politely looking away, Courage was grinning and giving two thumbs up at the scene, and Heart...

"OH, YEAH, SHOW HIM, MAMA!"

"Heart... maybe that's too much..." Wisdom then looked at Heart's hands. "Especially morphing your hands into flags."

Heart gave Wisdom a cheesy grin; as the wise clone said, Heart had changed her hands into flags, and had gone as far as writing 'My Mom and Dad still got it' on them both.

"Oh, right, I forgot you gals were still here." Warrior grinned at them. "Wanna leave for a few hours so Lobo and I..."

"I... think we can discuss that later... Warrior, right?" Lobo cleared his throat. "Right now, I'd like to meet my other wife... or the other half of my wife, or whatever."

"Fair enough." Warrior helped Lobo stand up, the male thanking her and then looking back at Homely.

"I'm Homely; as you can see, Warrior and I have different aspects of Lupe's personality... I have the motherly, family-oriented side..."

"Don't forget you also have a good brain, Sis." Warrior pointed out.

"Thanks, Warrior." Homely smiled at her before looking back at Lobo. "And, as you can see, Warrior here has Lupe's passion, oriented to Lupe's more action-oriented activities; fighting and loving."

"Wow... so, only 2 clones..." Lobo was interrupted by Warrior.

"Ah, you wanted more, uh? Heh, never thought you wanted your own harem." Warrior smirked at him, making Lobo to blush even more. "Nah, just kidding... maybe. Anyway, it seems that, since we are older and more mature than Maria, the sides of our personality is more 'blended together' so we can't separate so easily into several clones, but each of us has a more complex personality."

Lobo nodded in understanding and sighed. Things'll be quite interesting from now on.

A while later, Lupe, now back into being a sole being, discussed with the others what her clones had discovered about themselves, and the reasons why they could only divide into 2; Maria, Nicole and Sally pondered about this.

"It's actually a very accurate theory. It certainly explains why Lupe only divided into 2 basic yet, at the same time, complex personalities." Nicole commented. "Still, at a tactical level, it would be good if she could divide into 4, like Maria does."

"And guess this also explains why I can't divide myself." Sally shrugged. "My mind is already too... integrated, and I have only one basic personality, the Princess one, that includes all the other aspects as well, so I can't divide it."

"And how are we teaching my mom how to divide herself?" Maria asked. "I mean, I got this ability mostly by instinct, and only later I learned to control it."

"Maybe Lupe should get in touch with her inner kid to see if she can divide it too." Sonic chuckled and everyone turned to look at him. "Oh, come on, guys, don't tell me you can't take a joke..."

"That's brilliant!" Sally said in Sonic's face, literally (she stretched her neck to get her face right in front of his), and her eyes the size of dishes. Sonic gasped at this.

"Uh... you know I was only kidding, right?"

"Yes, but it's not the first time you achieve brilliancy through comedy." Sally shrugged and returned her neck back to normal size. "I think Sonic's idea can work. After all, we have the technology to get someone's mind inside a computer chip, and then make a virtual reality for said mind."

"Thanks for using me as an example." Fiona rolled her robotic eyes.

"So, if we can create a virtual reality for Lupe's mind, she can get to find the hidden aspects of her personality, and later, when she gets her mind back to her body, separate them as well." Sally pointed out.

"Insightful psychological self-discovery, the easy way." Tails grinned. "Well, as easy as programming a high tech device capable of doing that can be."

"I think that can work." Lupe smiled before turning to Nicole and Fiona. "Does it hurt, you know, when your mind gets discharged inside the computer?"

"I feel at home. Literally." Nicole shrugged.

"It tickles." Fiona added.

A while later, Lupe's head was connected to the computers, and her mind discharged into a nice virtual reality environment, that looked a lot like a peaceful, pretty forest. Lupe smiled and started relaxing herself, and just a few moments later, Homely and Warrior appeared themselves as independent creatures; since this environment was directly linked to Lupe's brain, she could literally solidify her thoughts.

"Nice to see you face to face." Homely smiled at Lupe.

"Yes, looking good there." Warrior grinned and fist-bumped with Lupe. "So, when are you getting the rest of the guests out of your head?"

"I'm on it." Lupe started concentrating, yet still keeping a relaxed state. Then, she started chuckling, as she started remembering several funny things that had happened to her in the past... and this pretty much gave form to her sense of humor.

After a few moments, another Lupe appeared behind Warrior; this one was the same size as Homely, but her outfit was everything but conventional... in fact, she was identical to Lupe when wearing the Sally-as-a-jester-costume, but the colors were blue and golden yellow instead of blue and white, and her hat had 4 points, each with a bell, instead of just one.

"Oooooooh, yes! It's showtime!" The newcomer then took a scepter out of nowhere, one that had her head and face on it, and pointed it at Lupe... with the scepter's face kissing Lupe's nose.

"Whoa, what was I thinking... literally?" Lupe gasped.

"Hey, everyone needs a little laugh in their lives... so smile everyone!" The clownish Lupe then stretched her arms and grabbed both Warrior and Homely's mouths, forcing them into large smiles... and since they were elastic too, the smiles were so big they could almost bite their own ears.

"Hey, cut that!" Warrior removed the clown's hand from her mouth... and then gasped when this hand turned into a pair of scissors. "NOT LITERALLY!"

"Heh, good thing you didn't say 'Beat it'." The clown grinned while changing one of her hands into a mallet.

"Okay, guess it's safe to say you're the embodiment of Lupe's sense of humor." Homely said.

"Give the lady a cigar." The clown grinned and placed her scepter (that now looked like a giant cigar) inside Homely's mouth. "Yes, I'm her sense of humor, but I'm also her smarts." The clown changed her hat into an academical one and she then got a pair of thick glasses; she then started talking in a more serious way. "Of course, since she was thinking about her life's funny moments when creating me, my smarts' main manifestation is through comedy."

The clown then stretched her torso and moved behind Lupe, getting back to her joking personality.

"So, you want me to join your little band, uh? Well... I don't trust any club that accepts me as a member." The jokester grinned while getting thick eyebrows and a pair of glasses. "But that might be fun."

"Okay... and... what name are we calling you?" Lupe asked her.

"Call me whatever you want, just don't forget to call me for dinner." The jokester grinned. "But yes, I need a name. A good one. A funny one. One that makes all the other names pale in comparison!"

"How about Jester?" asked Lupe.

"Mmm... simple, direct, descriptive... Okay, I like it." The clown bounced behind Warrior and Homely, and then formed a giant sign with her scepter, reading 'Introducing, JESTER', in neon lights.

"Where did you get those lights from?" Homely asked.

"We're in a virtual reality place; we can do a lot more than just stretching and morphing." Jester grinned. "See? I'm the mind!"

"Okay... if the girl is done with the jokes..." Warrior stopped talking when Jester morphed into a ball.

"Not likely." Jester grinned while bouncing.

"... fine... Lupe, can you try getting another personality out?" Warrior turned at Lupe, who just nodded and started doing as when she summoned Jester; said clown was now morphing into a balloon and floating over her.

"Come on, hurry up... all this waiting is deflating me." Jester literally deflated and landed over Homely.

"You have a thing for mocking me, right?" Homely sighed.

"You're a perfect comedic foil for me. I'm the crazy one, so my foils must be my opposites without being my enemies." Jester chuckled and then looked back at Warrior.

"Don't even think about..." Warrior couldn't finish the phrase because now Jester was covering her head, transformed into a giant afro wig.

"Let me guess; the muscular, short-tempered gal is also a good foil for the crazy girl, right?" Warrior groaned.

"Hey, you got it! You have some sense of humor too, uh?" Jester grinned while morphing back into normal.

While all this happened, Lupe, even if concentrating into finding another personality (or more precisely, aspect of her personality), couldn't help but hear and see a bit of this, and this reminded her of her own childhood, and how she was rarely girly and spent most of the time playing with the guys; even if, obviously, her people were a warrior race, and therefore the females tended to be much tougher than usual since early childhood, she was pretty tough even by wolfish standards. And these memories summoned the next clone-apparition-personality, one that was slightly shorter than Jester or Homely, and wearing a shirt and short combo, with stylish boots and a long hairdo.

"Oh, yeah, I'm in a cool place!" The new one even acted like a teenager. "So, what are you gals playing?"

"Anyone for tennis?" Jester was now wearing a tennis player's outfit, and one of her hands was morphed like a racquet.

"Gee, where did you get your material? Old cartoons?" The teen grinned at Jester, who now was morphing her muzzle into a duck's bill.

"You're depthspicable." Jester frowned at the teen, spitting a bit over her.

"Hey, spell it, don't spill it!" The teen frowned back while cleaning up the saliva from her face. The duo glared at each other for a moment before they both broke laughing loudly.

"HA, I'm just kidding with you! You're funny!" The teen chuckled while Jester morphed her hand into a clownish hat and covered the youngster's head with it.

"I like her. She's silly." Jester said to the others, the teenager laughing at this too.

"Great, now we have another prankster." Warrior groaned. "Lupe, you really needed more fun in your life when you were a kid."

"Whoa, how did you get muscles like these?" The teen said while poking Warrior's biceps. "Really, you must crack boulders if you hug them."

"Heh, well, thanks." Warrior chuckled.

"Of course, if you hug a boulder, you might need therapy." The teen added. Warrior rolled her eyes yet smiled at this.

"I see... Jester is fond of physical humor and jokes, while our young friend likes sarcastic comments and observations." Homely pointed out. The teen wolf looked at her and smiled.

"And here I thought you were just a very young granny." The teen chuckled but then got a bit more serious. "No, I mean it, I see you and I feel like baking cookies."

"Yes, that's part of Homely's charm." Lupe finally talked again. "And since you're a representation or embodiment of my younger days... guess that means you're my Heart."

"Don't say those things out loud or people will start talking." The teen smirked at Lupe but then got a more relaxed disposition.

"Why do you have to be so mean?" Homely asked her.

"I don't try to be mean. Like the lady says, I was summoned from her younger days' memories, and you know many youngsters are like this, driving people crazy without actual malice behind the comments." The teen shrugged. "By the way, how are you calling me? I don't wanna be called 'The Smart-Aleck Kid' all the time."

"Tomboy." Lupe and Warrior said at once.

"Tomboy? Just like that? Heh, don't tell me; you gals named Snow White's dwarves too." The teen chuckled before cooling down a bit. "But... yes, I like it. Just one warning; if anyone thinks I'm not a tough girl, but a boy called Tom, that 'anyone' is gonna get it."

Tomboy, grinning, morphed one of her fists into a steel gauntlet-like.

"And by 'it', I mean this."

"I definitely like this gal." Warrior chuckled at this.

"Well, guess this is it... and I'm not talking about Tomboy's fist... What I mean is, no more clones-personalities." Lupe pointed out.

"Yes, it's getting too crowded here." Jester morphed her hat into a Chinese one. "As much as a Hong Kong's public bathroom."

"Let me inform everyone outside my mind." Lupe told them all.

"So, you're going out of your mind, uh? And I thought the clown here was the crazy one." Tomboy smirked.

"And proud to be." Jester got a military stance and saluted... while getting a large clownish nose and honking it with her other hand.

Lupe chuckled at this and then turned back at Homely and Warrior.

"I trust you two to keep those under control."

"We'll do our best but we make no promises." Warrior shrugged.

Homely smiled at Lupe, nodding, and the original elastic wolf nodded before she gave the signal to the ones outside the virtual world so they could take her out, and Lupe could then try getting her four personalities out in the real world.


	17. The Elastic Wolf Twins

Chapter 17 - The Elastic Wolf Twins

It didn't take too much time or effort for Lupe to repeat the cloning trick and, this time, creating 4 clones. The others were already expecting Tomboy and Jester to appear since, after all, Sally, Nicole and Tails had been monitoring the Virtual Reality System the whole time Lupe was in there, but it still was quite impressive.

"Heh, look at that, Lobo. You got yourself a harem." Sonic, jokingly, grinned at the large wolf. Before Lobo could reply, Jester was already jumping over him, and sitting on Lobo's shoulders, the clownish clone changing her outfit to an Arabian Princess style for the moment.

"Let's have 1 thousand and one Arabian Nights together!" Jester grinned while looking down at Lobo, the blushing guy looking up at the very playful female's face.

"Uh... eh... let's discuss that later, can we, Jester?"

"Oh, it's fine. I like being a buffoon rather than a princess anyway. Much funnier!" Jester changed back to her normal (for her) self but remained sitting on Lobo's shoulders.

"Hey, don't hog the big handsome stud, Jester. We all want a piece of him." Tomboy grinned at both Lobo and Jester. Lobo blushed even more... and then got a shocked expression when Jester placed a hand on his nose and changed it into a plastic pig-like snout.

"Too late. I'm already 'hogging' him." Jester grinned before wrapping her whole torso around Lobo's body. "And now I'm hugging him!"

"Cut that out, or I might PUNish you." Tomboy smirked at her 'sister'.

"Hey, I'm supposed to be the jokester here." Sonic grinned at Tomboy.

"Last time I checked, you didn't have the monopoly, Blue Cheese."

"Blue Cheese?" Sonic arched an eyebrow.

"Yes, it's a good name for you; why, you didn't get it, or am I going too fast for you?" Tomboy smirked at Sonic.

"Fast... hey, you can never go faster than me! I'm the fastest thing alive."

"And that's why you have no girlfriend."

Jester finally stopped hugging Lobo, mostly because Tomboy's remark and Sonic's stunned face caused her to laugh without any control. Most of the others were laughing as well, except Homely, Nicole and Sally... and even they were having problems to keep a straight face.

"Okay, seriously, what was Mom thinking when she created you two?" Maria said to Tomboy and Jester when she could control her own laughter.

"Oh, she was just letting her inner clown take control." Jester grinned. "I'm the Happy, Crazy Clown, and Tomboy is the Sarcastic one."

"Thanks for the analysis, Sigmund Fraud." Tomboy smirked at Jester and then they high-fived each other.

"Actually, Maria... your mom is a little bit like these two when it's just the both of us together." Lobo explained to his daughter. "She can be tender..." He then pointed at Homely, "... aggressive..." Lobo pointed at Warrior, "... and with a sense of humor that goes from sly remarks to a little craziness... and of course, since all of them..." Lobo then gave quick looks to the four Lupe's clones, "... are part of her personality, when they're not fused together, that little tenderness, aggressiveness, sarcasm and craziness have no other personality trait to keep them balanced, and they get enhanced."

"Strong, smart, sexy..." Warrior got Lobo in a playful headlock. "You have it all, you know that, Stud?"

Lobo was blushing again, and the other clones approached the duo so Warrior wouldn't have him all just for herself. Sally then proposed Maria to divide herself as well, since, obviously, they'd need help from her own clones to keep Lupe's under control... and to protect Lobo's sanity.

Maria had to work a bit to clone herself this time, mostly because Jester was still cracking jokes and puns, and Tomboy was doing the same with her remarks, so Maria had a hard time concentrating enough to do the cloning, but she managed to do it after a few minutes. Unsurprisingly, the 2 sets of clones started bonding with the most similar counterpart from the other set; Warrior and Courage started a friendly strength test, Homely and Soul started trading baking recipes and advices in home chores, Tomboy and Mind started a witty, smart discussion/debate on assorted topics, and Jester and Heart were running rampant, trying to find stuff to entertain themselves.

"Okay... this is nice and all, but guess maybe some of us should keep an eye on Jester and Heart." Sally commented.

"Oh, come on, Sally, they're just having fun. They're not destructive crazies." Sonic chuckled.

"No, but they're way too hyperactive. Heart is the most calm of them both... and just saying that would be enough to worry." Sally added.

"Fine, I'll go keep an eye on them." Sonic grinned. "If I don't return in 3 days, send a rescue team."

"And if you don't return, may I keep your stuff?" Tomboy paused her debate with Mind to smirk at Sonic, the blue hedgehog rolling his eyes at this.

"Just stay away from my underwear drawer." Sonic left in a dash, Tomboy grinning at this and returning to the debate, this time discussing why Sonic would have an underwear drawer if he is always running around without any clothing.

The rest of Maria and Lupe's family joined the clones, and starting bonding with Lupe's clones (obviously, they had already bonded with Maria's); Leeta and Lyco in particular were enjoying a bit too much hanging around with Warrior, and even more when Tomboy paused her chat with Mind to join the twins.

"Heh, two sets of almost identical quatriplets." Leeta chuckled. "Now I know how people feel when they meet us, Lyco."

"Yeah, except that they are much easier to tell apart from each other." Lyco added.

"Yes, that's us. Colored for your convenience." Tomboy smirked.

"Enough chit-chat. Let's get physical." Warrior got a sly grin. "You get physical with each other and I'll do with Lobo..."

Warrior couldn't continue talking because Homely was covering her mouth now, using both hands, each one the size of Warrior's head.

"Not in front of the kids, Warrior."

"Oh, sorry." Warrior replied when Homely moved her hands away.

"Anyway, how about we have some stealth practice?" Lyco suggested.

"A formal way to say 'Hey, let's play hide and seek'." Tomboy grinned while the others laughed.

"Joking aside, it's actually a good idea, and a great way for the new clones to practice their shape shifting abilities." Mind said. "We're all hiding around the lab, and taking diverse forms to do it. And Lyco and Leeta can practice their searching and tracking abilities by finding us."

Everyone agreed on this, and soon all the elastic clones (minus Jester and Heart, who were still playing somewhere else) scattered all over the place while Lyco and Leeta closed their eyes and started counting. Once they reached 100, the twins started searching.

Even if Leeta and Lyco got close to find them a number of times, the elastic females always managed to avoid them at the last moment with a quick shape change and moving to another hiding spot without being noticed. At one point, Leeta was literally standing on Mind, who had turned herself into a floor panel, and before the seeker could realize this, Mind had already morphed into her semi-liquid state and crawled under one of the labs' heaviest computers. Lyco wasn't doing much better, as Warrior and Homely were watching her moves from the ceiling, both Lupe's clones sticking to the ceiling by making their whole bodies large suction cups; the fact the ceiling was blue-painted and that Warrior and Homely were covering their outfits and bodies not-blue-parts also provided a very efficient camouflage.

"They're good." Leeta commented to her sister.

"Yes, wonder where they're hiding." Lyco replied while looking around... and not noticing Soul, who had morphed herself into a chair; in fact, Lyco was taking a seat on her right at that moment while still looking around.

"Well, we never set any limits for this game. They're probably hiding at the most secure places, like... the weaponry room, the containment chambers or the Elastomatic's room." Leeta pointed.

"But all those rooms have electronic locks. We'd have heard them if opening those doors." Lyco said while standing up.

"Yes, but with their powers, they can literally slip under the doors and get inside the rooms without opening them." Leeta said, making Lyco get a thoughtful expression.

"And they can always use the air vents." Lyco nodded at her twin. "Okay, let's go get a look at those rooms."

The twins decided to search at the Elastomatic's room first, considering it would be ironic yet fitting if the elastic females were hidden at the same place they kept the machine that gave Lupe and Maria their abilities. Once entering, Lyco and Leeta started searching around until they were in front of the Elastomatic.

"INCOMING!"

The twins turned to see a cackling Jester, in ball shape, ricocheting inside the room, closely followed by Heart, also in ball shape, and Sonic, who was using his famous spinning move. Unknown to the twins, and everyone else, Sonic had decided to teach Heart and Jester how to use their ball shapes in an offensive/fast moving way, thanks to his capacity to adopt a close-enough shape when doing this attack/move. Sonic, being the experienced one, stopped spinning when realizing their random ricocheting had made them enter this room, and even Sonic knew better before playing like this with delicate machinery around.

"Jester, Heart, stop bouncing! You're gonna hurt the girls!" Sonic yelled, ready to rescue the twins if the two hyperactive elastic females couldn't stop in time.

Sonic's timely warning made Heart and Jester to avoid hitting Leeta and Lyco, the twins ducking and covering at the same time. Unfortunately, this sudden change of direction made Heart to hit the Elastomatic's control panel, turning on the machine, and Jester did the same a moment later, firing the ray; due to the twins being in a defensive position at this time, they had no time to move out of the way, and got hit full force by the Elastomatic's ray.

Sonic reacted and, not knowing how to turn off the machine, and knowing he had to stay away from the ray as well, dashed to a nearby cable and disconnected it, cuting of the Elastomatic's power source and effectively turning it off. When he and the already normal-shaped Jester and Heart looked back at Leeta and Lyco, the twins were already elongated and getting in-between a solid and a plaster-like state.}

"Either we got affected by the ray..." Leeta said while holding her belly.

"... or we're retaining liquids." Lyco continued, noticing both her belly and her sister's were growing as a pair of water balloons.

"Oops." Heart gulped.

"Double Oops." Jester added.

"Forget about ancient extra-dimensional evil forces; Sally is the one who's gonna kill me if she finds out I broke the Elastomatic." Sonic groaned. "That is, of course, if Lobo doesn't kill me first for transforming two of his favorite warriors."

While Sonic was trying to think about a good excuse for this accident ("_Mind control? Time machine? Fairies dust?_), Jester and Heart, realizing Leeta and Lyco needed some guidance, dropped their comedic/wild natures for the time being and dashed to their side.

"Listen up, you two; your bodies are now adapting to the whole powering up thing, so you need to keep a hold on yourselves, literally!" Heart said while hugging Lyco, preventing her body to either explode or melt.

"Yeah, just focus on your original looks, and tell your body you're the one in charge!" Jester did the same with Leeta. Luckily, having Lupe's looks, despite the clown outfit, gave Jester an immediate authority over Leeta, and she started calming down and controlling herself a bit faster and better than her was then when she noticed her clothing and Lyco's was pretty much melted at this point.

"W-we're gonna need clothes!" Leeta finally exclaimed.

"Sonic, go to the room at the end of this corridor. Sally and Nicole had been making replacement suits for all of us; get two for the twins." Heart said to Sonic, the blue hedgehog nodding and dashing out of the room a moment later. With his speed, he was back after just one second; he gave them a pair of completely white outfits.

"These are still in 'base colors', right before Sally and Nicole dye them. Guess we later can color them at Leeta and Lyco's preference." Sonic said while handling them the suits. "Now, how are we gonna explain this to Sally and the others?"

"You can start now."

Sonic, gulping, turned to see Sally and everyone else behind him, looking at the scene. Sonic realized Sally didn't look that happy.

"Oh, this is gonna be a pain." Sonic rolled his eyes.

A while later, by the time Sonic had finished explaining everything, and he and the elastic chaotic duo (Heart and Jester) had apologized for the millionth time, Nicole had already finished personalizing Leeta and Lyco's outfits. Both had white collars, belts, boots, and gloves; the rest of Leeta's was green, and the rest of Lyco's was blue. Also, the twins had asked to change the design a bit, so their outfits were a top, pants and long gloves/boots combo instead of being a one-piece, like the rest of the elastic females.

"Nice... but why did you both want the 'top' look?" Amy asked them.

"Guess we just like..."

"... having our abdomens exposed." Lyco ended Leeta's phrase.

"And now, back to more important topics... what were you thinking?" Sally groaned. "I mean, playing hide and seek in that room was almost as dumb as playing 'chasing' indoors!" Sally then turned at Sonic. "Emphasis in 'almost'; seriously, you couldn't get Heart and Jester to play like this outside? You know better about playing this kind of stuff in a place filled up with delicate machinery."

"Uh... eh... would you believe me if I tell you we were about to get outside right when this happened?" Sonic grinned nervously.

Sally gave him a silent glare.

"Uh... that we were going out in 5 minutes?"

Silent glare.

"15 minutes?"

Silent glare.

"In time for dinner?"

"Sonic... shut up." Sally facepalmed. "You defend yourself a lot better when you stay silent."

"Then he's always defenseless." Tomboy smirked, while Sonic groaned and looked down.

"Well, we have to improve security and safety here." Homely said. "And now, the most important issue is..."

"Training Leeta and Lyco so they can use their new powers properly." Everyone else chorused.

"Seriously, this situation is becoming a bit too common here." Tails sighed. "At this point, I wouldn't be surprised if Rotor and I are the next ones to get elastic powers."

"Don't be silly, Foxy Boy. In this town, you need to be a girl to get elastic." Fiona grinned.

"I can get him elastic..." Jester grinned before pouncing on Tails and morphing into a pair of trousers. "... underwear!"

"Jester, this is making me feel uncomfortable." Tails groaned.

"Why, you like boxers better?" Jester, chuckling, morphed into a pair of boxers.

"Great; now I'm arguing with my underwear." Tails face palmed.

"So that's the reason you normally use none." Tomboy smirked.

"It's my imagination, or getting super elasticity powers have 'getting a weird sense of humor' as a secondary effect?" Daemon said before looking at Tomboy. "And I said that as a rhetorical question."

"Thanks for clearing that, Wings." Tomboy grinned. "You saved me from exhausting my brain with a mind-challenging mystery."

"I wonder if we'll also..."

"... start acting like that." Leeta ended Lyco's phrase.

"Getting sarcastic? Nah; your thing is being a living stereo." Tomboy smirked.

"HEY!" The twins exclaimed.

"Great; now they come with Surround Sound." Tomboy grinned at them.

"Before this comedy fest continues..." Tails groaned while pointing at Jester, "... can someone take this off me?"

"Tails, you realize you just asked us to take off your underwear?" Sonic actually managed to grin at this.

"I'm not doing it; not on the first date." Fionna grinned, making Tails to blush and groan in embarrassment.

"Jester, that's enough. You're embarrassing Tails." Homely said to her 'sister'.

"He's embarrassing himself, I'm just covering him." Jester replied before changing back to normal... or close enough.

"Fine; if you're done playing, let's start with Leeta and Lyco's training." Sally said to the group before turning back at Sonic. "And you stop laughing, Mister Responsible; you're grounded for a week."

"Oh, come on, Sally, you're not my mom..." Sonic stopped talking when Sally glared at him. "Uh... eh... I'm going to my room to think about what I did... Bye."

Sonic dashed away a moment later.

Heart and Jester were chuckling at this until their respective sisters frowned at them.

"You want to get grounded too?" Homely and Soul said, in a perfect 'angry, disappointed mom' tone.

"No, Mom." Heart and Jester morphed themselves into babies and gave everyone big, puppy dog eyes.

A few minutes later, after everyone stopped 'awing' at Heart and Jester's puppy-like aspect, and Maria and Lupe re-fused with their clones (since it was easier to work with a shorter group), they started training Leeta and Lyco; of course, the first thing was showing them how to stretch their legs and arms while Tails and Nicole checked out their vitals; luckily, like the other elastic beings, it seemed they had no dislikable, dangerous side effects.

"How much can we stretch?" Leeta asked while her arms stretched to several dozen feet.

"As much as you want, as long as it doesn't hurt." Amy said to them while she started stretching her arms, legs, and body around a large metal column. Lyco tried to do the same, but, at first, she only could move around the column by keeping her body in direct contact with the metal.

"This metal column feels cold when it touches my bare belly." Lyco remarked as she was looking at her bare stretched out abdomen.

"Come on, try this, you two." Amy said to the twins. "And try not to touch the column; that's just to help you focus and work on your complex stretching."

Leeta and Lyco did as Amy showed them, with a bit more effort since, obviously, Amy had more practice already, and the twins feared getting entangled while doing these moves. After a while, however, they were moving and stretching with considerable grace and swiftness.

"Heh, this is fun." Leeta said, so pleased with this that she didn't notice when her stretched leg moved too close to Lyco's body, and both females got tangled. Before Amy or the others could help them, the twins were rolling through the floor, and only stopped when hitting another column, now looking like a huge dish of spaghetti due to their bodies being completely stretched like long, thin ropes.

"Here's another nice mess you got me into." Lyco groaned while Leeta started giggling, and soon both girls were laughing loudly. While Amy, Nicole and Sally untangled them, Lupe got a thoughtful expression. Even if Leeta and Lyco always had a sense of humor, laughing like this wasn't normal for them; in fact, they sounded a lot like her Jester persona.

As the training continued, this became more obvious. When the elastic females started training the bouncing moves, both in ball shape and using spring-like limbs, Leeta couldn't stop herself from pouncing on Sally like a playful pup, and then standing on Sally's belly.

"Hi, I'm Leeta. L, Doble E, T, AAAA." Leeta chuckled.

"Please, don't start singing 'The Most Wonderful Thing about Leetas.', okay?" Sally rolled her eyes, not liking how this was coming... and the implication Leeta had just used her as a fat honey-obsessed bear's replacement.

Lupe then decided to call her clones again, but this time, by making an effort, she only called out Jester, the rest of her personalities and clones inside her. Jester then started to play/practice with Leeta and Lyco, and everyone noticed that the twins were keeping up with her pretty well, both in moves and sense of humor.

"It seems that the Elastomatic had some... interesting side effect on them, after all." Lupe pointed out.

"Yes, enhancing their sense of humor. Not that surprising, considering you and Maria have one clone each with a very active sense of humor." Sally pointed out.

"Guess it comes with having a 'flexible', 'changing' mind." Amy shrugged.

"Bad joking aside, Amy might be right. After all, this is the first time the Elastomatic effects 2 subjects at once, not counting when we used it on Lupe and Amy's fused body, and even then, it was still just one body." Nicole deduced. "Using a full charge on 2 subjects at the same time, one right next to the other, without regulating the voltage and under non-controlled circumstances... we're lucky this hyperactive hilarity is the only side effect they got."

"That, and the clown nose." Lupe pointed out. Everyone noticed how Leeta and Lyco, as part of their 'training', were now morphing their noses into 'clown-likes', with Jester, of course, encouraging them.

"Jester, you're turning this session into a circus." Sally frowned at the clownish clown... and saying this proved to be a mistake, as Jester morphed her hands and tail into assorted musical instruments to start playing circus music. Leeta and Lyco, grinning at this, morphed into balls to start bouncing around.

"I had to say that, uh?" Sally face-palmed.

"Girls, change your noses back to normal or they're gonna get stuck like that." Lupe said to the twins. They morphed back to normal and tried to change their noses too, but it seemed this change was a bit too good, as the noses remained clownish despite their efforts.

"Oh, well, it's not that bad, right?" Leeta grinned while honking her own nose.

"And we can inflate them." Lyco, grinning, took a deep breath and started inflating her nose like a giant balloon, soon making it large enough to make her to levitate. Lyco then took a deep breath and the air went from the nose to her head, and from there, Lyco sent the air to the rest of her body. Leeta, not missing a beat, morphed one of her fingers into a large rope, tying it around Balloon Lyco's tail, and started hopping around while dragging her sister behind her, like a little girl playing with a balloon.

"Quick, somebody, get the camera!" Jester chuckled.

"Now I see why everyone said Leeta and Lyco didn't enjoy their childhood as much as they should have." Lupe sighed. She remembered that, as wolf cubs, Leeta and Lyco had spent most of their time training to become warriors, and it seemed that, now that they had gained their powers, their subconscious mind affected their repressed playful instinct and was making up for the lost time.

After allowing the twins to play like this for a few more minutes, Maria got their attention back to practice other shapes. Maria changed into her muscular self, and the twins followed suit; at first, their muscular forms were more air than real muscle, evidenced by the fact they almost floated away when they inflated themselves. Maria had to teach them how to alter their muscular density so they could get real huge, strong muscles instead of just getting a buff look from air excess.

Once they had practiced a bit moving with their new super strong selves, Maria and the others made Leeta and Lyco try to test their might, since, obviously, getting a muscular look wasn't a big deal if their real strength remained the same. The group moved to another part of the test room, and everyone nodded in approval when Leeta lifted five hundred pounds dumbbells on each hand (specially designed and built by Rotor and Tails) without any big effort, and Lyco lifted a huge piece of machinery over her head, barely feeling the weight.

The next shape they trained was the sexy one. Sally was the one showing them the right proportions they'd need to take; considerably bustier and taller than normal, but still not that much they'd have problems moving. Leeta and Lyco did the same as her, and soon became two overly sexy, statuesque beauties.

"You think we're sexy enough like this..."

"... or we actually need to work a bit more?" Lyco ended Leeta's question.

"Mmm... let me put that to a test." Amy then took out a communicator. "Tails, Rotor, can you two guys come here for a moment?"

The 2 brainy guys had been working on some devices through the whole training, so they weren't even close to the room at that moment. When Tails and Rotor appeared, and saw Leeta and Lyco, Tails had to cover his nose to stop a massive bleeding while Rotor gulped and froze on the spot, his eyes growing to their maximum size.

"Yes, I think you two are just fine this way." Amy giggled at this.

"Y-you... I... y-you called us... to show us... how Leeta and Ly-Lyco look in this shape?" Rotor finally got his voice back.

"Yes. And it seems they look perfect, judging from your reactions." Amy grinned.

"We could have called Sonic too, but he's 'grounded' and we're not giving him a prize." Sally added.

Tails, now a bit more recovered, approached the twins, his eyes scanning their bodies in detail.

"Uh, Tails, I think you're overdoing the watching now." Leeta said.

"Yeah, most girls wouldn't approve of this." Lyco added.

"I'm in Heaven." Tails, despite being a bit more recovered, was still entranced by the twins' beauty.

"Maybe you should change back to normal before this guy's hormones go completely overboard." Lupe instructed the twins. Leeta and Lyco nodded and changed back to their normal shapes.

"I don't know if I should be sad or thankful." Tails sighed at this. "Oh, no offense, girls; you two still look very pretty."

"Aw, aren't you the sweet little guy." Leeta grinned while scratching Tails' chin, the young kitsune's tails getting stiff at this.

"Yeah, too bad you're not a couple years older, or we'd be after you." Lyco added, her face showing a sly smirk.

"Heh, maybe I should take him out of here before you two give him a heart attack." Rotor, chuckling and much more recovered than Tails, carried the boy out of the room.

"Okay, Rotor. Thanks." Lyco smiled before turning at Sally. "So, what shape are we trying now?"

"Mine." Sally smiled while posing a bit. "You two are now practicing changing into other species; you can start with mine."

Leeta did the transformation just perfectly in a matter of seconds. Lyco needed several tries, probably because Leeta was a bit closer to Sally, or at least seemed to admire her the most out of the two, and therefore Leeta already had a very good, clear mental image of Sally's face.

"Not bad." Sally complimented the twins. "Now, we'll try... a feline form."

The twins did this change at more or less the same pace; Leeta changed into a huge tigress while Lyco morphed into a cheetah.

"_Mmm... so, Leeta likes stronger, tougher forms while Lyco likes slender, faster ones."_ Nicole thought and then decided to put this to a test. "Okay, now, try to morph into random animals. Your choice."

Like Nicole deduced, Leeta changed mostly into huge, strong animals, shaping into a bear, a gorilla and a rhino, without much practice, while Lyco changed into a rabbit, a deer, and a spider monkey, almost with the same easiness as Leeta did with her changes. Then, Nicole asked them to morph into the animals the other twin had changed into; even if the girls managed to do it, they had a harder time doing this; Leeta needed no less than 5 tries to make a decent rabbit, while Lyco's rhino looked like a mix of rhino, hippo, and a morbidly obese wolf.

Maria and Amy got to teach the twins how to change their clothes, starting with their usual warrior outfits; unsurprisingly, Leeta and Lyco did this with ease, as they were used to dress in this way on a regular basis. Then, Maria and Amy took turns to change their outfits into Homely's, Jester's, Heart's, Warrior's, Tomboy's, and Wisedom's, with the twins doing their best to reply them. Again, fitting with their favorite animal shapes, Leeta changed into Warrior's outfit with ease, while Lyco did it much better with Wisedom's and Homely's.

"Not bad. Now, you girls try changing into more normal outfits, like this one." Maria said while morphing her clothing into Fiona's bodysuit. The twins had little problem morphing into this.

Amy's outfit wasn't that hard to copy as well. Then, the twins morphed into regular teenager clothing, both doing a good job.

"Okay, it seems that, shape-shifting aside..."

"... we'll never need to get new clothes again." Lyco ended Leeta's phrase and they started chuckling.

The training continued like that for the rest of the day, only ending when Daemon entered the room, a bit too serious.

"We found a way to track down Mandara's energy signal."

Everyone turned at him and nodded. Training time was over.


	18. The Fall of Mandara

Chapter 18: The Fall of Mandara

Everyone went to the meeting room, with Rotor already displaying the tracking device's schematics by using Nicole's holographic projectors. Sonic was there too, since, obviously, this was just too important to keep him 'grounded' during the meeting.

"By analyzing Daemon's energy signal, and the tissues of the plants affected by Mandara's power, we had been able to come with an effective tracer. It will allow us to find Mandara, and attack him before his power grows too much for us to even hurt him." Rotor explained.

"Well, practically all of us are ready to fight. Even Leeta and Lyco, who just got their powers, got enough training and practice today to be useful in the battle." Sally added.

"Makes you glad I gave them elasticity powers, huh?" Sonic got a smug grin that disappeared when Sally frowned at him again.

"Glad they are more powerful and capable of surviving a direct attack against Mandara? Yes, that's good. Glad that your irresponsibility could cause a tragedy? Sorry. Not at all."

"About the whole 'direct attack' issue..." Daemon got everyone's attention. "I think I should be the one leading the charge, since my powers are the most capable of hurting Mandara, and I'm the most likely to survive when he attacks back."

"But you can't do it alone." Maria pointed out.

"And he won't." Lupe said. "I think Sonic, Knuckles, Sally and I should be the ones going right ahead with Daemon while the others cover us."

Maria wanted to argue this, but she realized her mother and Sally were the most capable among the elastic fighters, and Knuckles and Sonic were both experts when it came to direct attacks against heavily fortified enemies.

"Rotor and I also came up with a repellent that will keep the mutant bugs away from us." Tails added. "And Daemon's blizzard powers will keep the mutated plants at bay. So we'll 'only' need to worry about Mandara and whatever monster or surprise he might have ready for us."

"Okay then, we'll make our move in one hour." Sally explained. "Now, let's get ready."

As everyone went to prepare themselves for the battle, Daemon went apart with Lobo. The rest thought Daemon was just going to tell him some pointers about how to battle Mandara's monsters and tricks without having powers of his own. However, in reality, it was a different issue what they wanted to discuss.

"So, Daemon, you really want to marry my daughter, uh?" Lobo smirked at the archangel.

"Well... that would be my intention, but..." Daemon sighed. "I have to admit, this is the first time I'm really afraid... and that's a lot coming from a guy that had felt a demon's breath in his face."

"Fear of compromise?"

"No. Fear of losing Maria." Daemon groaned. "I really love her. More than I ever thought I'd ever love anyone or anything besides my Creator. But now... no matter how this ends, I might lose Maria; in the worst case scenario... she might not survive this battle, and the only way we'd be together again is if I die myself... and in the best case scenario, I will get Mandara with me, to the immaterial world, for him to be judged... and that would mean I'd get back to being a 'normal' archangel, and I'll need to leave Maria here. And I'd hate to break her heart as much as I'd hate to lose her."

Lobo got a thoughtful expression at this.

"Well... forget about the 'worst case scenario'; no way she's gonna die in this battle." Lobo said to Daemon, the winged wolf nodding in agreement; Mandara would need to kill both of them before even getting close to doing the same to Maria. "And, for the 'best case scenario'... you really need to leave, or you only MIGHT leave?"

"Uh?" Daemon got a puzzled expression.

"You came here to accomplish a mission. But, as a warrior, and co-leader of a warrior race, I can tell that a mission's parameters can change in the blink of an eye. When you arrived here, you only had one objective; stopping your brother, Mandara. However, now, besides your 'prime objective', you also have a secondary one, making Maria happy; and just because it's 'secondary' doesn't mean it's less important."

Daemon nodded in agreement, understanding Lobo's point.

"So, once you... and the rest of us... accomplish the main mission, you would still need to fulfill the secondary mission. And I think you can always ask your father for help in that, isn't it?"

"Yes... you're right." Daemon smiled at this. "And if I'm willing to risk life and limb for Maria, I'm more than willing to request my father's support, and asking him to let me stay here with her. After all, life, even an immortal life, would be worthless for me if she's not by my side; and if I leave her with a broken heart... just knowing I'm causing her any pain would be just too much... my, I would probably die due to sorrow, even in Heaven itself." Daemon paused. "I know, it sounds a bit overly dramatic, but..."

"Yes, but nobody is arguing with you. I feel the same about Lupe. I'd die a million times before making her sad or breaking her heart." Lobo nodded at Daemon. "Guess I'm lucky to have such a good potential son-in-law."

"As much as I am with my own potential in-laws." Daemon shared a little smile with Lobo, and they both returned with the rest of the group, getting ready with the last preparations. A while later, they were all heading to Mandara's new place; ironically, he had made his 'home' in Robotropolis.

"An evil guy taking another's place, in more senses than one." Lupe observed, as she and Sally had morphed into their flying shapes to go right next to Daemon and above Sonic, with Knuckles not far behind.

"Of course he would like Robbie's old place. They probably had the same tastes in decoration." Sonic, overhearing Lupe, grinned a bit yet it was obvious for those who knew him that he was extremely focused in the mission at hand. The blue hedgehog could be a clown, even bigger than Jester, at times, but nobody doubted of his heroism and how good he was in these missions.

As Tails and Rotor had calculated, Daemon's blizzard was keeping the mutated plants immobile, and most of the mutated animals at bay, while the heroes' forces were reasonably comfortable inside the now improved battle vehicle. It was a relatively short ride until they found the first wave of Mandara's defense system; a swarm of stone-made gargoyles.

"I think Mandara's watchdogs found us!" Tails said while activating the vehicle's defense systems; several radar-guided laser guns emerged from the armored vehicle's sides and started shooting the gargoyles. Knuckles, who was running in front of the vehicle (him being not as fast as Sonic but with strong-enough legs to be faster than the tank-like invention), assisted them by smashing several of the gargoyles with his fists, while Sonic was clearing up the terrain ahead by using his rolling attack. Daemon, Sally and Lupe had their hands full as well, battling several gargoyles up in the sky; Daemon did most of the fight, using his elemental attacks to destroy the enemies while Lupe and Sally moved ahead to get a better sight of the now close Robotropolis.

"There are hundreds of these things." Sally said, using her communicator so everyone could hear her. "Mandara is making them out of Robotropolis' raw materials. I can see them emerging from the ground!"

As Sally said, Mandara's magic was forming the gargoyles from whatever available material, and, obviously, Robotropolis' rock, metal and concrete provided an almost unlimited supply. When the group got closer, Mandara got even more serious by making his gargoyles as huge as a house by morphing Robotnik's towers and biggest robots.

"Whoa. This guy thinks big." Sonic exclaimed while moving at hyper speed to get the gigantic monsters' attention.

"We can think big too." Maria said while nodding at Nicole and the twins. "Rotor, open the door. We're going out."

Rotor obeyed and opened the vehicle's doors, the elastic females emerging immediately... and then stretching their whole bodies to get gigantic proportions as well, so they could fight the large monsters at the same level. By morphing their fists and making them even harder than the rocks, and using their flexibility to dodge the monsters' attacks, the foursome started making some real damage to them. Lupe and Sally soon joined them, using the same strategy, and when the normal sized, flying gargoyles joined to assist the giant ones, Amy joined the battle, changing her hands into giant fly swatters to beat them up.

"I think the ladies have this covered. Now we can focus on Mandara himself." Lobo said to his companions. Fiona, using her robotic sensors, detected Mandara's energy signal right ahead, on Robotnik's main living quarters.

"He's coordinating the whole battle from there. And... he seems to be losing power." Fiona commented.

"He wasn't expecting us to have such a strong attack force. But we must take him down before he comes up with a better strategy." Daemon pointed.

"Okay then; Daemon, Fiona, Knuckles, Bunnie, we're going to visit the big guy in charge. Rotor, Tails, Lobo, you guys help the ladies and see if you can send one or two of them to help us, just in case." Sonic took charge, and everyone followed after him. Bunnie used her jet boots/feet to fly at Sonic's speed and the two of them cleared the way by destroying several gargoyles, some of them much bigger than the normal ones yet still smaller than the gigantic monsters.

Tails and Rotor used their battle vehicle to shoot at several gargoyles flying around the elastic females while Lobo went for a direct attack, using a battle mace and steel gauntlets to crush many monsters himself. When one of the giant ones noticed Lobo doing this, it tried stepping on the warrior wolf, but Lupe noticed this as well, and reacted by unleashing her 4 clones at once, while still on her enlarged shape. Each clone was smaller than the previously giant Lupe but they were still much bigger than normal; Warrior and Tomboy tackled the giant and smashed it against the ground while Homely protected Lobo from the flying debris, and Jester went crazy, changing into her ball shape and ricocheting all over the place; considering her current size, she was pretty much a living, super fast boulder, destroying several of the giant monsters and a good bunch of the normal sized ones that were on her way.

In his observation room, Mandara was now growling and had started sweating; he wasn't expecting so many changeling warriors on the heroes' side, and the clone trick had forced him to increase his own warriors' might at expense of his own, and even more when Maria joined her mother and did the same cloning trick.

"I'll need to go and deal with those pests personally." Mandara was about to change into his dark mist form when he was interrupted by an energy blast hitting him right in the chest, not enough to really hurt him but it was still strong enough to stun him for a moment. When he turned and saw Bunnie aiming at him with her bionic hand turned into a blaster, he missed Sonic attacking him from a side.

"Hey, glad to meet you, Mandy." Sonic grinned while dodging Mandara's reply, a powerful energy blast of his own. "Heh. Mandy. Your dad didn't think you would be mocked when he named you, did he?"

"Insolent blue pest." Mandara, furious, sent an energy wave around him, thinking it would be enough to hit Sonic despite his speed. However, the blue guy was already used to this kind of maneuver from all the times Robotnick's inventions tried doing the same against him, so Sonic was out of range when Mandara did it. And this distracted Mandara again, enough for him not to notice Fiona and Daemon joining the fight and hitting him with a laser blast and a lighting attack at once.

"We know he's a blue pest, but he's our pest." Fiona grinned while she and Bunnie continued shooting at Mandara. The evil being tried to attack them back but he had to get defensive to avoid Daemon's mace.

"Surrender now, Brother, and we'll be merciful." Daemon said while trying to hit Mandara, the dark brother doing his best to dodge the attacks and shoot some energy blasts of his own.

"Merciful? That's why you'll lose, Brother. You're weak, just like these mortals." Mandara finally managed to give Daemon a decent blast that sent the heroic brother a few feet back.

"Heh, weak? Tell that to Knuckles." Sonic gave Mandara several high speed punches in the chest, and then moved aside to dodge Mandara's fist... and getting away from Knuckles' attack, the echidna charging at that moment and punching Mandara's face full force.

When Mandara reacted, he was out of the room, and the building, via the hole he had made in the wall with his body due to Knuckles' punch. Mandara tried to attack again but he was, again, blasted from several angles, courtesy of Daemon, Fiona and Bunnie.

ough!" Mandara growled and, despite getting blasted several times, started growing on the spot. "When I'm done with you, you'll be nothing but dirt under my feet..."

"Like this?"

Mandara looked up and gasped when looking at Amy's huge feet, the pink hedgehog getting Lobo's message to join the other heroes in their attack on Mandara. Before the villain could escape, Amy was already stomping on him.

"Ouch. Even I felt that." Sonic cringed yet grinned.

Just then Maria joined the fight and turned her hand into a mallet (she was back to being only one being but still gigantic in size), and when Amy moved away her feet, Maria started beating the wicked villain to the ground. Lupe and the other elastic females, all of them still in giant size, surrounded Mandara, ready to take turns to beat him up.

After Maria finished beating Mandara, Lupe then made herself muscular and then inflated her fists to gigantic size and started pounding Mandara deeper into the ground. Nicole was next, hitting Mandara with her mace-turned-hand, and Leeta and Lyco went even further, with Lyco morphing herself into a giant baseball bat that Leeta later used as a weapon to hit Mandara full force.

"Whoa. They're hitting him with everything but the kitchen sink." Tails exclaimed.

"Oh, you had to give them that idea, didn't you?" Sonic grinned at his young friend while pointing out at Nicole, who had morphed herself into... a giant kitchen sink. Lupe then lifted Nicole over her head, and smashed her against Mandara, removing her just in time for Sally hitting him with Maria, who had morphed herself into an anvil, the young wolf morphing back to normal to move out of the way so Amy could finish the job with the help of Sally, the princess having morphed herself into a giant spiky boulder that Amy slammed with all her strength against the already very battered Mandara.

The Elastic females turned back to their normal sizes, and everyone looked down at the injured, stunned, dizzy and overall extremely bruised villain. Maria, who was still in her muscular shape, even if now in a more normal size, simply smirked at him and grunted.

"Puny villain."

"I'd say that was overkill... but considering this guy is immortal, guess we can allow it. Besides, it was so cool!" Sonic grinned at the ladies.

Mandara started moving, and started concentrating to turn himself into mist and try to escape, but one look to Daemon's face and the powerful archangel's mace stopped him; he knew that, after this beating, he would have no strength to keep his mist shape if Daemon used his elemental powers against him. Not to mention that all of Daemon's allies were surrounding him, and those with long-ranged attacks, like Bunnie and Fiona, were also aiming their weaponry at him.

"Make things easier for yourself, Brother, and give up. Don't make us hurt you."

"_**Don't make us hurt you? **_And what would you call what just happened here; a very rough making out session?" Mandara groaned at his brother. "Seriously, Daemon, what are mortals eating these days to get this strong?"

"I had a chili dog before coming here." Sonic jokingly replied.

Daemon then jumped into the crater (with all those attacks, the ladies had formed a very big one) to retrieve Mandara, who offered no resistance. Once he took his brother out, Daemon allowed Tails and Rotor to hold him with some special restrains they had designed for the occasion; besides being strong enough to hold Knuckles, the restraints had some electronic locks that sent an energy pulse that countered Mandara's energy, a feature the scientists could achieve from studying Daemon's mace. Normally, Mandara would be powerful enough to overcome these locks but after the beating and wasting so much of his energy, he didn't have the strength to escape.

"My mission is complete now." Daemon said to his companions. "Once Mandara is out of the Mortal Realm, most of his spells will lose effect, or, at least, they'd start vanishing."

"That means Robotnick might get back to life?" Sonic asked.

"Or that Rouge will get back to normal?" Knuckles added.

"Possibly, but even I can't tell if it will be immediate or if it will take several days, maybe even weeks or months." Daemon replied before sharing a look with Maria.

"If you are talking about the Fatso, don't hold your breath." Mandara frowned. "My brother is right about my magic, but one of the effects that won't disappear is death; my spell killed that moustached fool when I turned him into stone, and even if the magic loses its effect, the most that will happen will be him changing back to flesh and blood, but he'll remain dead."

As Mandara continued talking, apparently a bit happy that not all his evil would be undone, Daemon nodded at Maria, who smiled at him. They both knew that, with Mandara captured, Deamon had to leave the Mortal Realm as well... but they also knew he wanted to stay.

"Well, there's no time like the present, so..." Daemon nodded at the rest of his companions and used his mace to create a magical circle around Mandara and himself.

"Oh, joy. A family meeting. Hope 'Daddy Dearest' doesn't mind me arriving without a gift." Mandara frowned yet sighed, knowing what was coming.

"You're leaving now, Sugah?" Bunnie asked Daemon, the large winged wolf nodding at her.

"Yes. For how long... we'll know in a moment." Daemon lifted his mace, and sent a lightning bolt up to the sky. A moment later, a powerful light beam fell over Mandara and himself, and for a few moments, apparently, nothing happened... but, in reality, Daemon was in direct mental communication with his father. After a few intense yet silent moments, a booming yet warm voice was heard coming from the light.

"**Permission granted, My Son. Let me give you a wedding gift."**

Two things happened at that moment. Mandara disappeared without leaving traces, and a powerful energy wave emerged from the light, instantly covering the whole planet, and restoring Mobius back to normal.

In her cell, Rouge lost her feral features, even if still conserving most of her newfound strength, and got a puzzled look, realizing she was jailed.

"Okay... last time this happened to me, it was right after a very wild party." Rouge looked at herself, realizing most of her clothing was slashed. "Yep. A party."

Back with the heroes, the light beam was disappearing, and so the energy wave, but, surprisingly, Fiona was now the one covered in a golden aura. Before she could ask what was going on, the robotic fox changed into flesh and blood, and the aura divided her into two beings, one wearing her mercenary black outfit and the other wearing her old orange bodysuit from her Freedom Fighter's days.

"I.. I am no longer a robot..." Black-outfitted Fiona said in happiness.

"And now I have a twin!" The orange-outfitted one exclaimed.

"How..." Amy was interrupted by Daemon.

"In order to heal Fiona and make her a living being again, my Father had to separate her Good and Bad sides."

"And which one is the..." Leeta stopped talking when the black-outfitted Fiona started cackling and then jumped over the destroyed street's debris to get away from the group. "Oh. Never mind."

"Guess my twin isn't fond of happy meetings. Oh, well, at least she's happy." The other Fiona smiled and shrugged before pointing at Daemon and Maria. "Not as much as those two, of course."

The winged wolf and his elastic beloved were now embracing each other, very tightly, and kissing with burning passion and love. Lobo and Lupe got close to each other and hugged each other's waist with one arm each while looking at the scene in happiness, and the others cheered and clapped at the couple.

"Alright, let's go back home!" Amy beamed. "We have to plan a wedding!"

"And also leave the place before someone makes us clean up this mess." Sonic grinned before dashing away while Sally smirked and shook her head.

"How did he know I was about to make him do just that?" Sally then looked at her smirking companions. "What? He's still grounded, remember?"

Everyone shared a good laugh as they started walking out of Robotropolis' ruins, happy that they were free of both Robotnick's threat and the even bigger evil's one, and, in Maria and Daemon's case, eager to start a new life together.


	19. Epilogue

Epilogue - An Elastic Wolf Marries An Archangel

It had been 6 weeks after Mandara's defeat, and everyone at Knothole Village was getting ready for Daemon and Maria's wedding. Exactly 3 weeks after Mandara's defeat, Daemon had proposed to Maria, and now they were ready to do it. Everyone was excited and collaborating to make this the best wedding ever.

"We have everything for the reception ready." Sonic said to his companions as the hedgehog was moving at super speed to help with the decorations. "We have the cake, and chili dogs, and the music, and chili dogs, and the decorations, and chili dogs..."

"We got the message." Sally, who was using her elasticity to hold several ornaments and put them in place, rolled her eyes. Sonic just stood in front of her, grinning.

"Well, excuuuuuuuuuuuse me, Princess."

Sally chuckled and shook his head while Sonic got back to work.

While all this happened, Nicole and Good Fiona (the very obvious name everyone gave to the Freedom Fighter Fiona) worked together to make a good lights show for the reception. Sonic had suggested fireworks, but it was obviously something unfitting for a wedding, so Nicole and GF decided on just working with some lights that would give the whole place a nice, celebration atmosphere.

"When the newlyweds arrive, we'll illuminate them with this one." GF said while placing a set of lights. "Daemon's wings will look spectacular with this."

"I agree, even if I must go with the general idea that his wings look very spectacular no matter the light. They are celestial wings, after all." Nicole nodded while helping Fiona. In the last few weeks, they had started bonding very nicely, and the pair was currently so close that many would think they were sisters or cousins.

"Hey, Fiona," the two foxes turned when hearing Bunnie approaching, "Rotor and Tails are done with whatever gizmo they had been working, and they want you at the lab."

"Great, it's ready!" GF, obviously knowing what the 'whatever gizmo' was for, smiled, and, after thanking Bunnie, she and Nicole went to the lab.

A few minutes later, Rotor showed Fiona a small disc-like device, Tails at his side and explaining how it worked.

"Well, Fiona, as you know, when you and your 'Evil Twin' got split, there was a lot of supernatural energy involved." Tails said to a nodding Fiona. "According to our lectures, you still have a lot of that energy inside your cells; our theory is that this is the way Daemon's father made up for your mass dividing into two beings, so you can still self-sustain despite having only half of your original mass and body energy."

"This device will allow you to access your inner energy, and use it in a variety of forms. Also, since each form will have trademark abilities, and your body's physiology and shape will be altered with each change, the device will also affect your clothing so it won't get destroyed or ripped when you transform. A secondary effect of this is that each outfit will be different from the original to suit (no pun intended) whatever body type you get."

"However, in order to do this, you have to manually select the change/power you want; we're already messing with your DNA to make this to work, and we didn't want to risk hurting your nervous system by creating a mental link with the device. Also, as said, this involves messing with your DNA, and in order to work, it will permanently fuse with your body." Tails continued.

"What if it malfunctions?" Nicole asked, a bit worried about the last part.

"We can repair it even if it's still fused to her body, and, in the worst case scenario, we can remove it... but the later would probably be painful." Rotor admitted. "So, in the end, the decision is up to you, Fiona."

"I'll take it." Fiona nodded. "I want to be as useful as possible to you all, and in case my 'evil self' finds a way to use her own inner energy, I'll need this or some other way to get an edge and stop her."

Rotor, Tails and Nicole nodded at this, and then Fiona herself, following Rotor's indications, placed the device on her chest.

A second later, a powerful energy surge seemed to come from the device, but in reality, it was coming from Fiona's interior, and covering her whole body while energizing the invention. Her three friends gulped and paled a bit when she started laughing like crazy, and Tails almost dashed to the nearby 'panic button' they had at the lab to get immediate help. Luckily, after a few seconds, that felt like an eternity for Fiona's friends, she started breathing normally and stopped laughing. The device glowed with a green light and then stopped as well.

"Wow... that felt so... intense." Fiona said while cooling down. "As if... I had all this inside me, looking for a way out, and finally found one."

"Right now, Sonic would make a joke about 'stomach gas' and 'burping', but let's avoid it." Tails grinned. "Feeling better now?"

"Yeah... now, explain to me again how to select the power I want to use, please."

After a quick revision of the device's basics, Fiona used its dial, and activated it for the first time. Instantly, her body started growing, and her muscles became as huge as the elastic females when turning into their super strong forms. A few seconds later, Fiona was almost 4 times her normal size, and with muscles the size of bowling balls. Her outfit hadn't changed that much aside the fact it obviously grew along with her.

"Whoa. This is very impressive... hey, is that my voice?" Fiona was surprised as to how deep she sounded.

"Yeah... and I'm still debating with myself if you have arms, or tree logs." Rotor half-joked while looking at Fiona's massive musculature. She chuckled and started doing some muscular poses.

"I wonder how strong I am." Fiona thought out loud. Tails, grinning, pointed at a large steel beam at the other side of the room.

"We already had this ready to test your powers." The fox guy said while moving aside to let her pass. Fiona grabbed the beam with just one hand, and then bending it with just that hand's fingers, as if it was made of clay.

"Are you sure this is steel? I've touched jelly that is harder than this stuff." Fiona chuckled.

"If you are done showing off..." Rotor joked as she placed the beam on the floor, "let's try another transformation."

Fiona nodded and started moving the dial; her next morphing turned her back to a more normal size, but she still looked more athletic and muscular than usual, plus her fur got a dark orange tone, and her hair grew until it covered her whole back, plus her eyes glowed a bright emerald color.

"What can I do with this shape?" Fiona asked while looking at herself. She also noticed that her outfit had turned a lot more revealing, with a shorter skirt and showing a bit more of her back and chest, yet still conserving the same style and being decent enough to avoid dirty comments.

"This shape will give you energy manipulation powers, namely, the ability to absorb solar energy and use it for a variety of effects; that's also why it's a bit more revealing than your normal outfit, so you can get sun energy more directly." Tails explained while pressing some buttons that opened a series of windows, normally closed by steel doors; being the laboratory and weapon testing area, it was isolated, so it normally was perfectly closed and not letting natural light or wind in unless these windows were opened.

The moment Fiona felt the sunlight bathing her body, she felt her body filling up with energy, and soon she felt stronger than ever. In fact, she was literally glowing with energy, and a moment later she was levitating a few feet over the floor.

"This area is big and open enough; why don't you try a real flight?" Nicole suggested.

Fiona nodded and started flying around the room, enjoying the sensation. Then, encouraged by how strong she felt at the moment, she landed to grab the same steel beam she had bended a few minutes ago, and then changed it back to its normal state with her bare hands, basically un-bending it; finally, Fiona made her hands glow with energy, and melted the steel in a matter of seconds.

"Wow. I literally have a little sun inside me." Fiona smiled while looking at her glowing hands.

"Let's see if you can project this energy at a distance." Rotor took out several practice dummies for her to try her powers. It took her a minute or so to focus her energy properly, but soon Fiona was blasting the dummies from several feet away, with enough force that made evident she would be able to shoot a target from several hundred feet of distance.

"These are very impressive powers." Fiona commented.

"We also included the 'more fashionable powers' around here." Tails joked. Fiona smiled and adjusted her dial again, knowing he was talking about the Elasticity and Shape-Shifting abilities.

This time, the transformation changed back to pretty much her normal state, including her clothing; of course, the device/dial was still visible. However, she realized she had elasticity and shape-shifting powers the moment she took a deep breath, and her whole belly inflated to the size of Rotor's whole body.

"I had wanted to do this since my 'whole self' gained and lost these powers the first time." Fiona chuckled while stretching her arms (her belly still inflated) to grab both Rotor and Tails, and embrace them, both guys chuckling at the sensation of their bodies 'sinking' in her inflated belly.

"Heh, you're welcome." Tails laughed out loud.

"Yeah, not many women get happy when a guy makes her lose her figure." Rotor chuckled while poking her inflated belly. Fiona grinned, released them, and then morphed her whole body into the 'Sexy Shape'.

"Not a big lose, don't you think?" Fiona smiled seductively, making Rotor to chuckle and blush, and Tails to cover his face to try hiding his very intense blushing.

"You guys gave her very versatile powers." Nicole got the inventors' attention. "The Solar Powered shape grants her flight, strength, energy projection and stamina, and we all know the many ways the Elasticity and Shape-Shifting powers can be used."

"And these are just a sample. We added several more power forms; Daemon even let us analyze his mace so we could replicate his elemental powers." Rotor said while Tails was still trying to regain control of himself.

Fiona used her dial to gain her first elemental power, pyrokinesis, aka fire control. Her outfit turned a black and dark red combination, and she started forming fireballs in her hands; not just forming the fire, but actually toying with it. With a few minutes of practice (the others at a safe distance, of course), she started forming more complex shapes, including fire birds and 'happy faces'. When using her powers with enough intensity, her eyes actually turned fiery.

"Mmm... I think the proper phrase in this case would be... Flame On?" Nicole, observing her friend, shrugged and half-joked, making the others to chuckle slightly.

Next, Fiona used her dial to gain hydrokinesis, or water control. Her outfit turned a bright blue and white combo, and surprised everyone, including herself, when forming a water ball in her hand.

"How I am doing this if there's no water here?" Fiona asked.

"Your body is 75% water, Fiona; you can manipulate your own body liquid, and you can also manipulate air moisture to gain enough water to work with." Tails explained her. "Of course, this power will be the most useful when you are next to large volumes of water, like, a river, a lake, or even a pool."

"Now, try geokinesis; it's Earth Control." Rotor said to the fox lady.

"But I need some earth or at least some soil to test it, shouldn't I?" Fiona asked. Tails lost no time to go to a nearby closet and take out several small rocks and a bag with earth.

"We already had thought about that. Of course, you can also test your power by causing an earthquake, but that would be a bit too violent, and not the best idea when you're inside a building that can break down with the moves." Tails said while placing the rocks and earth in front of Fiona.

Fiona's Earth Power suit was almost exactly like her normal one, but with light brown instead of orange. Plus, she also seemed to gain a bit more muscle; she guessed this was the way her body adapted to resist the energy necessary to produce an earthquake, in case of her doing that trick.

Fiona used her power on the rocks to levitate and make them to fly around her in circles. Then, she created a platform with the earth, and stood on it; a moment later, she was using the earth as a magic carpet, flying around the room.

"This power is very versatile too." Fiona commented while flying, also making the rocks to follow her. If she had wanted, Fiona could have used these rocks as projectiles, and in fact did it, hitting the remains of the dummies she had already destroyed with her Sun Power blasts.

When she landed, Fiona tried another power; aerokinesis, aka Air Control, her outfit changing to an orange and light brown combination. The first thing Fiona did with this power was cleaning up the earth and rocks, using it as a vacuum cleaner and actually dropping all the dirt inside the bags Tails had been keeping them in. After doing this, Fiona formed a small tornado under her feet, and it impulsed her up in the air.

"You guys really covered all the basics." Fiona chuckled while looking down at her friends.

"Just wait till you see what other Elemental powers you have." Rotor said to her.

"Really, What other Elemental powers do I have?"

"Well, you'll need to practice those later." Nicole interrupted. "After all, we still have a wedding to attend, and we've been here for a while already."

"You're right. And that's a ceremony we can't miss." Tails nodded.

Meanwhile, Lupe and Amy were helping Maria with her wedding dress. In the end, they had decided on a replica of Lupe's 'Homely' outfit, but in lighter tones, so it was mostly a light gray and purple instead of pure white, as a wedding dress normally would be. Being a warrior race, the wolves usually dressed in ornamental outfits similar to Earth's Native North Americans, but, due to the wedding being celebrated in Knothole Village, and the nature of both the guests and the groom, they had decided to use a more conventional style for the dress even if the colors weren't. Of course, the outfit included a veil, that Maria wasn't wearing at the time being.

"Are you nervous, Maria?" Amy asked, the pink hedgehog being so anxious it seemed she was the one getting married.

"Yeah, a bit, Amy... but more than that, I'm excited, and happy, and expectant and..." Maria's happy rant was interrupted by her mother.

"Heh, I know the feeling. When your dad and I got married, I think I had all the emotions at once." Lupe chuckled while finishing to brush Maria's long hair, that fell freely over her shoulders and covered most of her back.

"Even 'rage'?" Amy asked.

"Of course. I was angry with myself for not marrying him sooner." Lupe rolled her eyes, smiling, while Maria and Amy chuckled at this.

"Okay, seriously... you think this looks good?" Maria asked while pointing at herself and the dress.

"Maria, if you look just a bit better, Daemon will think he's back in Heaven." Lupe said while making some final adjustments to the dress. "Trust me, Dear, you look gorgeous. There's no such thing as an ugly bride, and you must be among the prettiest ones I've ever seen."

"I second that." All the females turned when hearing Lobo entering the room, the large wolf staring at the lovely vision in front of him. "I... I..."

"Dad, are you okay?"

"Y-yes, Maria, is just..." Lobo smiled while washing away a tear, "It's not easy for a father to see his little girl turning into a beautiful grown female. I hadn't been this excited since you became an official warrior... and that time was nothing next to this."

"Aw, Daddy." Maria hugged him. "Just remember, even if I'm no longer your little cub, I'll always be your daughter."

Lobo and Maria embraced for a few moments, Lupe and Amy smiling at the scene before getting her own dresses... basically, using her own elastic powers to get formal outfits; Lupe changed into her Homely dress and hair style, while Amy mimicked it. Once Maria and Lobo stopped embracing, Amy handled her the veil, so Maria could put it on her head and cover her face. After Lobo gave his wife a last quick look (he always loved the Homely look), he and Maria left the room, with Lupe and Amy following.

A few minutes later, everyone was ready for the ceremony. Nobody had noticed Fiona's new device, since she was covering it with the dress she had chosen for the wedding; only Nicole, Rotor and Tails knew about her new powers, as they decided to keep it secret for the time being. This was Maria and Daemon's special day. and Fiona didn't want to 'steal the spotlight' from the new married couple, not even for a split second.

Daemon was already at the altar, waiting for his bride. Since his wings, obviously, didn't allow him to wear a tuxedo, he was using a big, red and black cape with silver ornaments over his usual celestial suit as a formal outfit. He was smiling and literally beaming, and this became even more obvious when Maria arrived, linking arms with her father as he escorted her to the altar.

Everyone turned at the room's entrance when hearing the wedding march, and smiled when looking at the extremely pretty bride walking through the aisle with her father. When they arrived at the altar, Maria gave him a quick kiss on the cheek, and after Lobo nodded at Daemon, who nodded and smiled back, the father went to his designated place, next to Lupe, who was already there.

"I promised myself, I wouldn't cry..." Sonic covered his eyes.

"Sonic... you always cry at weddings?" Tails grinned at him.

"Not really, but I always wanted to say that." Sonic chuckled. Tails and those around the blue hedgehog rolled their eyes and they all focused back on the ceremony.

Daemon stared lovingly at Maria, who replied with the same love-filled eyes that were obvious despite the veil. As the ceremony continued, Lupe found herself leaning her head on Lobo's strong, warm chest, the huge male wolf leaning his head on hers as well, and the couple holding hands through the whole ordeal, invaded by emotions and loving how happy Maria looked, and knowing their cute little warrior had blossomed into a full female.

The moment after Maria and Daemon said 'I do' to each other, he lost no time to remove the veil, and even before hearing the 'You may now kiss the bride', they were already kissing long and deeply, and getting a wild ovation from the crowd. Even Sonic had teary eyes now, despite how much he'd probably deny it later; at the back of the room, Knuckles had to move behind a column so nobody could see him cleaning up his face... and nobody saw him except Rouge, who had seen the whole thing bat-style, hanging from the rooftop. Even if Rouge had received an invitation, she prefered her stealthy style, being present without anyone realizing it; of course, she'd later join everyone at the reception, but the bat female, just like Knuckles and Sonic, didn't want anyone to point out when she started getting teary eyes, and unlike the hedgehog and echidna, she didn't feel like coming up with a lame excuse.

By the time Daemon and Maria walked out of the room, heading to the reception, everyone in Knothole Village was already celebrating this union, and the couple was so focused on each other they barely realized when everyone started congratulating them, or the very impressive lights show that announced their arrival to the reception's room.

"So... for the future." Maria smiled at her husband.

"Our future. Together." Daemon replied before they kissed again, everyone staring at the happy couple; those who already had a loved one were holding hands and getting slight, discrete caresses, while those who didn't have a special one made a mental note about finding one as soon as possible... and Amy started coming with strategies to get the bouquet the moment Maria tossed it.

None of the strategies worked, of course, since the bouquet landed in Sally's hands without the princess even realizing it, when Maria dropped it while her husband carried her, flying, as they went to the hut where they'd celebrate their honeymoon; literally, they were flying to the sunset.

Sally only looked back and forth between the bouquet and the now very far-away-flying couple, and chuckled while everyone around her smiled at the scene. Some took it as a funny accident, while others considered it a good omen.

Only the future would tell.


End file.
